Spatiotemporal Clustering of Hydrological Droughts in Peninsular India

Author(s):  
Poulomi Ganguli ◽  
Bhupinderjeet Singh ◽  
Aparna Raut

<p>Drought is considered one of the costliest climate extremes that have wide impacts on humans and ecosystems. Understanding different drought stages, for example, onset, propagation, and its recovery, especially for tropical (the vulnerable region in Earth’s climate system) catchments are crucial for ecosystem sustainability and food security. Utilizing gauge-based quality-controlled daily streamflow records from 98 catchments of rain-fed Peninsular River Basins (PRB) in India, here we investigate different phases of hydrological droughts in a multi-stage framework. While several studies so far have investigated the propagation of hydrological droughts at a monthly resolution, a credible understanding of drought dynamics requires analyzing low-flow series at a higher spatial and temporal resolution, ensuring the issuance of timely alerts related to regional water scarcity.  Owing to high seasonality in the daily streamflow records, a variable threshold approach is adopted to delineate streamflow-based drought events. To assess the temporal evolution of droughts, the events are categorized into various inter-related phases, i.e., growth, persistence, and recovery stage over the study period 1965 – 2018. For most of the gauges, the mean timing of drought onset mostly lies between August and September revealing failure of monsoon as the primary causal factor for drought development in peninsular catchments. Furthering this, we identify four distinct hydrological drought regimes, which includes, <strong>Regime 1:</strong> persistent droughts with longer duration and moderate deficit volume with average termination during mid-monsoon (in September). These gauges are mostly situated in Central India and typically show a longer recovery time coincided with shorter return times (i.e., the time between two consecutive drought events), making it one of the most vulnerable regions in PRB; <strong>Regime 2:</strong> droughts with a shorter duration, least deficit volume with average termination in October, the post-monsoon period. These gauges are located in the western part of the country; <strong>Regime 3:</strong> droughts with the highest variability in drought deficit volume with the largest subsurface contribution from groundwater recharge. These sites are primarily located in eastern India and do not show any specific trend in the termination period; <strong>Regime 4:</strong> droughts with least regularity in drought termination with the average termination month clustered around November. These gauges are mostly concentrated in the southwestern part of the country. Our findings add value to the systematic understanding of hydrological drought propagations in rain-fed catchments, which serves as a basis for exploring future changes in droughts under concurrent shifts in rainfall and temperature extremes in a warming climate. </p>

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vojtech Vlach ◽  
Ondrej Ledvinka ◽  
Milada Matouskova

<p>In the environment of the changing climate in Central Europe, the seasonality and magnitude of low flow events and hydrological droughts are projected to change in the near future. Ongoing increases in the air temperature, rates of evaporation and decreasing snow cover will significantly affect the summer deficit volumes even in the rivers of humid montane and highland areas in mid-latitudes. However, what if the significant changes have already been happening during the last decades? Therefore, this research is focused on analysis of the variability and seasonality of low flow events and hydrological drought events in fifteen near-natural catchments along the Czech–German and Czech–Polish national borders. To quantify the low flow regime changes of the study regions in the last 52 years (1968–2019), we applied tools from the R package lfstat. The 30-year moving averages of seasonality ratio (SR) and the seasonality index (SI) were derived to address the degree of change in each catchment. Moreover, the 7-day and 30-day mean summer minimum discharges were computed, as well as the streamflow deficit volumes for every episode of hydrological drought. The results showed a continual increase in the proportion of summer low flow and drought events during the study period along with a significant shift in the average date of low flow occurrence towards the beginning of the year. The most marked shifts in low flow seasonality were found mainly in catchments with the average altitude 800–1000 m a. s. l. Conversely, the low flow regime in catchments above 1000 m a. s. l. and also in the catchments below 800 m a. s. l. remained nearly stable throughout the 1968–2019 period. Moreover, the analysis of 7- and 30-day mean summer minimum discharges indicated a much-diversified pattern in the behavior of long-term trends than it was expected.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhonghua he ◽  
Hong Liang ◽  
Zhaohui Yang

Abstract In recent years, hydrological drought has become more and more frequent, which has caused serious ecological and environmental problems. This paper is taking Guizhou province of China as an example to analyze the geomorphologic distribution and temporal-spatial evolution of hydrological droughts, and to study driving mechanisms of both the rainfall in the dry periods and geomorphologic factor on the hydrological droughts, based on the hydrometeorological data during the years 2000-2010, and the TM and DEM data. The results show that (1) the rainfall and its variation in the low-flow seasons have less impacts on the hydrologic drought and its variation; (2) the hydrologic drought severity in Guizhou was increasing year by year during the years 2000-2010, and showing the inter-annual variation with obvious stage characteristics, and the regional hydrologic drought was presented the more serious in the South than in the North, and the less serious in the East than in the West; and (3) in terms of the overall distribution of landform types, the mountain, hill and basin have less impacts on hydrological droughts; in terms of the distribution of single geomorphic type, hydrological droughts are significantly influenced by the high-medium mountain, deep-high hill and high basin, where the hydrological droughts are relatively lighter. While there are more serious areas in the low basin, shallow-low hill and low mountain.


Author(s):  
Kerstin Stahl ◽  
Jean-Philippe Vidal ◽  
Jamie Hannaford ◽  
Erik Tijdeman ◽  
Gregor Laaha ◽  
...  

Abstract. Numerous indices exist for the description of hydrological drought. The EURO FRIEND-Water Low flow and Drought Group has repeatedly discussed changing paradigms in the perception and use of existing and emerging new indices for hydrological drought identification and characterization. Group members have also tested the communication of different indices to stakeholders in several national and international transdisciplinary research projects. This contribution presents the experience gained with regard to the purpose and applicability of different classes of drought indices. A recent paradigm shift is the use of anomalies, traditionally from climatology, in hydrology. For instance, anomaly-based indices, such as the Standardized Streamflow Index (SSI) and the variable threshold level method to define streamflow deficiencies, are used increasingly for real-time monitoring. How these indices relate to low flows and their impacts may have become less clear as a result. Assessments of the severity of a particular drought may also differ depending on whether return periods based on traditional low flow or drought frequency analyses or whether SSI time series index values are used. These experiences call for a systematic comparison, classification and evaluation of different low flow and drought indices and their usages.


Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jisoo Yu ◽  
Tae-Woong Kim ◽  
Dong-Hyeok Park

As the environment changes, the stationarity assumption in hydrological analysis has become questionable. If nonstationarity of an observed time series is not fully considered when handling climate change scenarios, the outcomes of statistical analyses would be invalid in practice. This study established bivariate time-varying copula models for risk analysis based on the generalized additive models in location, scale, and shape (GAMLSS) theory to develop the nonstationary joint drought management index (JDMI). Two kinds of daily streamflow data from the Soyang River basin were used; one is that observed during 1976–2005, and the other is that simulated for the period 2011–2099 from 26 climate change scenarios. The JDMI quantified the multi-index of reliability and vulnerability of hydrological drought, both of which cause damage to the hydrosystem. Hydrological drought was defined as the low-flow events that occur when streamflow is equal to or less than Q80 calculated from observed data, allowing future drought risk to be assessed and compared with the past. Then, reliability and vulnerability were estimated based on the duration and magnitude of the events, respectively. As a result, the JDMI provided the expected duration and magnitude quantities of drought or water deficit.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henny A.J. Van Lanen ◽  
Samuel J. Sutanto

<p>Several approaches to identify hydrological drought exist, which result in differences in drought frequency, timing, duration, and deficit volume (drought characteristics) using the same hydrometeorological data as input. This has created confusion within the hydro-meteorological community, as well as in operational water management services on the difference in drought characteristics obtained with the different approaches. The aim of this study, therefore, is to provide a comprehensive overview of the differences of hydrological drought, i.e. streamflow drought, using different identification approaches for the pan-European river network (>10,000 river grid cells). Time series of daily streamflow data were obtained from the LISFLOOD hydrological model forced with gridded meteorological observations from 1990 to 2018. Streamflow droughts were detected using the daily and monthly Variable Threshold methods (VTD and VTM), daily and monthly Fixed Threshold methods (FTD and FTM), and the Standardized Streamflow Index with 1-month accumulation period (SSI-1). For the threshold methods the Q80 (flow that is equaled or exceeded 80 percent of the time) is applied, whereas for the SSI a threshold of about -1 is used. We applied a centered 30-day moving average (30DMA) smoothing technique to the daily flow data to reduce the number of minor droughts. This is the first study that compares all these drought identification approaches in such a systematic way at this large scale. Our results (pan-European maps, tables) clearly show that characteristics of streamflow droughts derived with different approaches deviate, partly associated with different climate regions across Europe. The daily threshold methods (VTD and FTD) identify twice as much drought events than the monthly threshold methods (VTM and FTM) due to the daily resolution and minor droughts, even with smoothing. Average duration of FT droughts is longer than VT droughts. In addition, FT droughts have higher drought deficit volumes than VT droughts (~ 30-60%, dependent on climate region), whereas using monthly data (VTM and FTM) result in higher deficits (~10-60%) than daily data (VTD and FTD). In northern and central European regions (Köppen- Geiger Dfb, Dfc and ET climates), the variable threshold methods (VTD and VTM) generally detect drought earlier (March-July) than the fixed thresholds (FTD and FTM) (July-October). In the western European regions and the Mediterranean differences in timing among identification approaches are not so clear. The characteristics of SSI-1 drought, in general, are close to what is being identified with the VTM approach. Differences in drought characteristics highlight the importance of whether end-users should take seasonality into account or not (VT and SSI-1 versus FT) and consider temporal variability (daily versus monthly). Certainly, there is no unique hydrological drought definition that fits all purposes; hence we suggest that users should clearly agree among themselves upon a sharp definition on which type of streamflow drought is required to be identified for a specific application.</p>


Radiocarbon ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Supriyo Chakraborty ◽  
Koushik Dutta ◽  
Amalava Bhattacharyya ◽  
Mohit Nigam ◽  
Edward A G Schuur ◽  
...  

Radiocarbon analysis in annual rings of a teak tree (Tectona grandis) is reported in comparison with previously published results. Samples (disks) were collected from Hoshangabad (22°30′N, 78°E), Madhya Pradesh, in central India. The previously published sample was collected from Thane (19°12′N, 73°E), Maharashtra, near the west coast of India (Chakraborty et al. 1994). Two short Δ14C time series were reconstructed with these tree samples to capture the bomb peak of atmospheric 14C and the spatial variability in this record. These time series represent the periods 1954–1977 and 1959–1980 for Hoshangabad and Thane, respectively. The 14C peaks in these places appear around 1964–1965. The Hoshangabad tree records a peak Δ14C value of 708 ± 8%, which conforms to the peak value of Northern Hemisphere Zone 3 as described in Hua and Barbetti (2004). But the peak Δ14C at Thane is somewhat less (630 ± 8%) probably due to the dilution by fossil fuel CO2 free of 14C emanating from the neighboring industrial areas. This depletion of peak values has been used to estimate the local emission of fossil fuel CO2, which is approximately 2.3% of the background atmospheric CO2 concentration.


2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 3001-3024 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregor Laaha ◽  
Tobias Gauster ◽  
Lena M. Tallaksen ◽  
Jean-Philippe Vidal ◽  
Kerstin Stahl ◽  
...  

Abstract. In 2015 large parts of Europe were affected by drought. In this paper, we analyze the hydrological footprint (dynamic development over space and time) of the drought of 2015 in terms of both severity (magnitude) and spatial extent and compare it to the extreme drought of 2003. Analyses are based on a range of low flow and hydrological drought indices derived for about 800 streamflow records across Europe, collected in a community effort based on a common protocol. We compare the hydrological footprints of both events with the meteorological footprints, in order to learn from similarities and differences of both perspectives and to draw conclusions for drought management. The region affected by hydrological drought in 2015 differed somewhat from the drought of 2003, with its center located more towards eastern Europe. In terms of low flow magnitude, a region surrounding the Czech Republic was the most affected, with summer low flows that exhibited return intervals of 100 years and more. In terms of deficit volumes, the geographical center of the event was in southern Germany, where the drought lasted a particularly long time. A detailed spatial and temporal assessment of the 2015 event showed that the particular behavior in these regions was partly a result of diverging wetness preconditions in the studied catchments. Extreme droughts emerged where preconditions were particularly dry. In regions with wet preconditions, low flow events developed later and tended to be less severe. For both the 2003 and 2015 events, the onset of the hydrological drought was well correlated with the lowest flow recorded during the event (low flow magnitude), pointing towards a potential for early warning of the severity of streamflow drought. Time series of monthly drought indices (both streamflow- and climate-based indices) showed that meteorological and hydrological events developed differently in space and time, both in terms of extent and severity (magnitude). These results emphasize that drought is a hazard which leaves different footprints on the various components of the water cycle at different spatial and temporal scales. The difference in the dynamic development of meteorological and hydrological drought also implies that impacts on various water-use sectors and river ecology cannot be informed by climate indices alone. Thus, an assessment of drought impacts on water resources requires hydrological data in addition to drought indices based solely on climate data. The transboundary scale of the event also suggests that additional efforts need to be undertaken to make timely pan-European hydrological assessments more operational in the future.


2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 2923-2951 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurie Caillouet ◽  
Jean-Philippe Vidal ◽  
Eric Sauquet ◽  
Alexandre Devers ◽  
Benjamin Graff

Abstract. The length of streamflow observations is generally limited to the last 50 years even in data-rich countries like France. It therefore offers too small a sample of extreme low-flow events to properly explore the long-term evolution of their characteristics and associated impacts. To overcome this limit, this work first presents a daily 140-year ensemble reconstructed streamflow dataset for a reference network of near-natural catchments in France. This dataset, called SCOPE Hydro (Spatially COherent Probabilistic Extended Hydrological dataset), is based on (1) a probabilistic precipitation, temperature, and reference evapotranspiration downscaling of the Twentieth Century Reanalysis over France, called SCOPE Climate, and (2) continuous hydrological modelling using SCOPE Climate as forcings over the whole period. This work then introduces tools for defining spatio-temporal extreme low-flow events. Extreme low-flow events are first locally defined through the sequent peak algorithm using a novel combination of a fixed threshold and a daily variable threshold. A dedicated spatial matching procedure is then established to identify spatio-temporal events across France. This procedure is furthermore adapted to the SCOPE Hydro 25-member ensemble to characterize in a probabilistic way unrecorded historical events at the national scale. Extreme low-flow events are described and compared in a spatially and temporally homogeneous way over 140 years on a large set of catchments. Results highlight well-known recent events like 1976 or 1989–1990, but also older and relatively forgotten ones like the 1878 and 1893 events. These results contribute to improving our knowledge of historical events and provide a selection of benchmark events for climate change adaptation purposes. Moreover, this study allows for further detailed analyses of the effect of climate variability and anthropogenic climate change on low-flow hydrology at the scale of France.


Author(s):  
Quentin Dejour ◽  
Huu Duc Vo

This paper presents the first assessment of a new non-axial counter-rotating compressor concept. This concept consists of replacing the stator of a mixed-flow compressor stage or the diffuser of a centrifugal compressor stage with a counter-rotating rotor that will turn the flow back to the axial direction with much lower diffusion factor, while providing the equivalent in work of the upstream mixed-flow rotor or impeller. This concept has two advantages. First, the very high stage pressure rise means that only a single counter-rotating rotor may be required, making mechanical implementation simpler than for multi-stage axial counter-rotating compressors. Second, the replacement of the high flow turning (high loss) stator/diffuser in a non-axial stage with a low flow turning counter-rotating rotor gives the new concept potential for achieving higher efficiency than conventional non-axial compressors. As a first proof of concept, a subsonic counter-rotating mixed-flow compressor and its conventional (i.e. rotor-stator) equivalent have been designed with the intent of being implemented in a test rig. CFD simulations have been carried out for a comparative evaluation of both configurations. Results show that the counter-rotating mixed-flow compressor produces more than double the pressure rise of its conventional version with a slightly higher peak-efficiency while having a smaller axial length. Moreover, the counter-rotating configuration has a better stall margin than its conventional counterpart, for which the boundary layer separation from excessive flow turning in the stator causes early stall.


Author(s):  
Shuyu Zhang ◽  
Guangju Zhao ◽  
Xingmin Mu ◽  
Peng Tian

Investigating the changes in streamflow regimes is useful for understanding the mechanisms associated with hydrological processes in different watersheds and for providing information to facilitate water resources management. In this study, we selected three watersheds, i.e., Sandu River, Hulu River, and Dali River on the Loess Plateau, to examine the changes in the streamflow regimes and to determine their responses to different soil and water conservation measures (terracing, afforestation, and damming). The daily runoff was collected continuously by three hydrological gauges close to the outlets of the three watersheds from 1965 to 2016. The eco-surplus, eco-deficit, and degree of hydrological change were assessed to detect hydrological alterations. The Budyko water balance equation was applied to estimate the potential impacts of climate change and human activities on the hydrological regime changes. Significant decreasing trends (P < 0.05) were detected in the annual streamflow in the Sandu and Dali River watersheds, but not in the Hulu River watershed where afforestation dominated. The annual eco-surplus levels were low and they decreased slightly at three stations, whereas the eco-deficit exhibited dramatic increasing trends in the Sandu and Dali River watersheds. In the Sandu River watershed (dominated by terraces), the runoff exhibited the most significant reduction and the eco-deficit was the highest among the three watersheds. The integral degrees of hydrological change were higher in the Sandu River watershed than the other two watersheds, thereby suggesting substantial variations in the magnitude, duration, frequency, timing, and rate of change in the daily streamflow. In the Dali River watershed (dominated by damming), the changes in the extreme flow were characterized by a decreasing number appearing in high flow. In these watersheds, human activities accounted for 74.1% and 91.78% of the runoff reductions, respectively. In the Hulu River watershed (dominated by afforestation), the annual runoff exhibited an insignificant decreasing trend but with a significant increase in the low flow duration. Rainfall changes accounted for 64.30% of the runoff reduction.


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