Assessing water resource system vulnerability to unprecedented hydrological drought using copulas to characterize drought duration and deficit

Assessing water resource system vulnerability to unprecedented hydrological drought using copulas to characterize drought duration and deficit

Global climate models suggest an increase in evapotranspiration, changing storm tracks, and moisture delivery in many parts of the world, which are likely to cause more prolonged and severe drought, yet the weakness of climate models in modeling persistence of hydroclimatic variables and the uncertainties associated with regional climate projections mean that impact assessments based on climate...

Assessing Vulnerability to Agricultural Drought: A Nebraska Case Study

Recent drought events in the United States and the magnitude of drought losses indicate the continuing vulnerability of the country to drought. Until recently, drought management in many states, including Nebraska, has been largely response oriented with little or no attention to mitigation and preparedness. In 1998, Nebraska began to revise its drought plan in order to place more emphasis on m...

Reducing Societal Vulnerability to Drought: Future Challenges

Linking drought research to water resource management actions

A multivariate, principal-component based index has been developed to quantify the severity of droughts. Named the Aggregate Drought Index (ADI), it describes the meteorological, hydrological, and agricultural aspects of drought on a climate-divisional basis, using fluctuations in the values of five variables associated with the hydrologic cycle and available water: precipitation, evaporation, ...

Reducing Societal Vulnerability to Drought: A Methodology

Given worldwide experience with drought during the past several decades and the magnitude of associated impacts, it is apparent that vulnerability to extended periods of water shortage is escalating. Developing a national or provincial drought policy and preparedness plan is a complicated but essential first step toward reducing societal vulnerability. Until recently, nations had devoted little...