Building a framework for a synoptic overview of drought

Area of Science:

• Hydrology and Climate Science
• Water Resource Management
• Environmental Monitoring

Background:

• Drought is a complex, multifactorial phenomenon requiring multiscale analysis.
• Effective drought management necessitates improved monitoring and climate services.
• Existing methods may not fully capture the nuances of drought impacts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce the innovative "Drought Scan" operational framework for enhanced drought understanding and monitoring.
• To integrate standardized precipitation and streamflow indices for a comprehensive drought assessment.
• To improve climate services for drought adaptation and mitigation.

Main Methods:

• Integration of the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and Standardized Streamflow Index (SQI) over 1-36 month scales.
• Development of a synthesized Standardized Integrated Drought Index (SIDI).
• Utilizing Cumulative Deviation from Normal (CDN) of SPI to assess system memory.

Main Results:

• The SIDI framework improved SQI explained variability by up to 10% in the Po River basin.
• SIDI effectively captured all documented severe droughts when below -1.
• Severe hydrological droughts have intensified, potentially due to human activities beyond precipitation.

Conclusions:

• The Drought Scan framework, using SIDI and CDN, offers a robust approach to drought monitoring and understanding.
• SIDI shows strong correlation with SQI, serving as a reliable proxy for hydrological drought monitoring.
• The findings support informed water management and climate services for drought resilience.