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The Murray-Darling River system is perhaps Australia's most important, with significant social, cultural and environmental values including 16 Ramsar listed wetlands. The MDB is home to 2.6 million people and produces about $24 billion worth in agricultural production each year (about one-third of total value for Australia). Hydrologic issues, typified by water availability and quality, have existed for many years, peaking during the Millennium drought from 1997 to 2010. Competing interests (i.e. irrigation, tourism, environmental heath), and the declining flows and water quality during droughts, led governments and water management agencies to consider the risks to water resources in the system in the early-mid 2000s. This paper reviews changes to risks associated with forest dynamics, as identified by - afforestation and bushfire – and considers new issues that have emerged since that analysis. It was found that the potential impacts of bushfire on stream flows were over-estimated in past studies, and that a planned significant afforestation expansion into agricultural and grazing land that was projected to reduce stream flows did not occur. While these two risks now do not seem likely to have significant future impacts on flows, or consequent effects on downstream users, the interaction of elevated CO2 and increasing temperatures on vegetation functioning and subsequent hydrologic consequences at catchment scale require further research and analysis. Reduced rainfall and increased temperatures under future climate change are likely to have an impact on inputs and flows. Uncertainties in how these changes, and feedbacks between climate, drought, more frequent fire and vegetation responses, impact on system hydrology also require further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the viability of precautionary savings as a hydrological drought risk management instrument in irrigated agriculture. To that end, first, the drought savings account (DSA) is proposed as a personal savings account to which farmers make regular contributions, with withdrawals allowed in the event of water supply gaps to guarantee a minimum income. Second, the implementation of the proposed instrument is empirically assessed in an illustrative case study using an innovative simulation approach. Results obtained suggest the DSA is actuarially sound, supporting its implementation as a cost-effective instrument to hedge hydrological drought risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Swaziland was affected severely by the 2015–16 El Nino drought, which severely affected agriculture and food security. Of special interest to this paper is its impact on irrigated home gardens on the Komati Downstream Development Project. This project was designed to extend irrigated sugar cane onto customary tenured Swazi Nation Land, with a secondary objective to improve food security by enabling farmers to convert some land from rain-fed to irrigated maize and vegetable production. A random questionnaire survey was undertaken on three farmers' associations of the KDDP which have adopted irrigated home gardens, sampling approximately 50 per cent of those eligible. In addition, in-depth interviews were conducted with committee members of the associations. The paper concludes that unlike previous droughts where the gardens enabled farmers to produce food at a time when rain-fed production had collapsed, in the 2015–16 drought, the impact on water supplies was so great that the irrigated gardens also failed, compromising the food security of the farmers and their neighbours. It also appears that a significant number of farmers are beginning to question the long-term viability of their current farm system in the face of what many perceive as long-term changes in the regional climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many parts of the world the combined pressures of population growth and a drying climate have resulted in the proliferation of water focused policies which aim to increase the resilience of socio-ecological systems. Until recently, these policies often reflected surface water centric views of water resources, with groundwater receiving scant attention. In this paper we provide an introduction to the importance of groundwater for water-dependent socio-ecological systems and why it needs to be better incorporated into environmental water management policies. Specifically we highlight the key role of groundwater in buffering the environment and socio-economic activities against drought. We also outline some of the key challenges that face policy-makers and managers implementing groundwater management policies. These include dealing with groundwater resources that are spatially and temporally mismatched with surface water resources; transboundary governance issues; challenges between focusing on either preventative or restorative actions and most importantly limited knowledge about groundwater resources and groundwater–ecology relationships. We hope that the information in this paper will assist in the development of sustainable surface-groundwater water management policies, as well as highlight important challenges that should be considered before implementing groundwater related policies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Approximately 97% of the country is experiencing drought conditions. Due to gross water mismanagement and its damaging impact on the country, Iran faces the worst situation in water resources of any industrialized nation. Tens of thousands of villages have been deserted and most of the major urban centers have passed their limits to absorb new rural migrants. Some officials predict that in less than 25 years, 50 million Iranians would be displaced from their current homes because of the pressing ecological conditions. This is happening at the time that the gap between the grassroots and the state has widened and there is increasing dissatisfaction with governance plagued by corruption, nepotism, economic mismanagement, unaccountability and a foreign policy which has produced various regional and trans-regional adversaries. This paper evaluates the pressing ecological challenges in Iran and by conceptualizing political resilience it critically evaluates whether the Islamic Republic is prepared to face the devastating ecological crisis and its socio-economic consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) was first established in 1986 as a regional integration organization addressing drought in the Greater Horn of Africa, i.e., Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda. Since water resources in the region are transboundary, in 2012 the IGAD started developing a regional water policy and protocol. This paper shows how regional policy and legal frameworks may be established despite differences in socio-economic, climatic and other conditions, considering that while progress was made towards a legal framework for the Nile Basin, much work is to be done with regard to other shared water resources. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Sustainable water resource management is the immediate priority as the rapid depletion of water resources is aggravating drought conditions in many regions worldwide. One of the possible approaches to recover from such a condition is through water resource balancing. The water balance studies require knowledge of water availability for various sectors' present and future requirements to balance the water resource. The present study uses the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) for water balancing. It evaluates the soil moisture deficit or surplus with spatial and temporal changes for the Marathwada region consisting of eight districts for 1957–2017. The analyzis shows water surplus from July to September and water deficit from November to May. The study observes that the Marathwada is drought-free during the Kharif season and water deficit in Rabi season. This study analyzes the need for crop-shift to avoid crop damage during drought. Based on the analyzis, all the urban system sectors need to augment short-term and long-term policies to overcome the water crisis for a balanced water resource. The Self-Calibrated PDSI (ScPDSI) is calculated based on PDSI, which gives more freedom in analyzing the drought period. Highlights Water balancing approach can effectively help in modelling the rapid depletion of water resources. This work expands the use of drought indicators for water balancing by evaluating the soil moisture deficit or surplus with spatial and temporal changes for the Marathwada region for 1957–2017. Urban system sectors may augment short-term and long-term policies based on the framework to overcome the water crisis for a balanced water resource. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 26 January 2007, following a prolonged period of severe drought and rapidly diminishing water supplies, the Australian Prime Minister announced the National Plan for Water Security, a 10-point plan significantly enhancing Commonwealth involvement in the nation's water affairs. One of the pillars of the reforms was a significant commitment to improve the quality and coverage of Australia's water information. The Bureau of Meteorology was directed to implement the Improving Water Information Program, supported by significant funding and a legislative mandate under the Water Act 2007. This paper traces the evolution of these new water information arrangements and highlights some of the new water information services that have emerged under the program. They include periodic water resource assessments, an annual national water account, various web products summarising the state of our water resources, and a seasonal streamflow forecasting service. Like their weather and climate service counterparts issued by the Bureau of Meteorology, these services have some important characteristics, namely that they are enduring, repeatable, robust, trusted and tailored to end user needs. The success of the program to date has been facilitated by appropriate resourcing levels, a clear legislative mandate, high levels of cooperation across the water sector and strong support from the water research and development community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Hydrological Sciences Journal/Journal des Sciences Hydrologiques is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The last 12 years has seen extreme drought in western Victoria. This has impacted on the area in many ways, but none more so than in the provision of basic water supplies to people. To meet the challenge of drought, headworks storages have had to be operated at record low levels, severe water restrictions imposed, water carting programs established, alternative sources of water, and new technologies developed and used. Significant changes have also been made to the water supply infrastructure in the region, most notably the Northern-Mallee and Wimmera-Mallee Pipelines. This paper relates the story of how water resources were managed and bulk water was delivered to around 70,000 customers over a geographic spread of 62,000 km², or about 30% of Victoria. Discussion on the social, environmental and economic impacts on the region are also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A better knowledge of droughts is required to improve water management in water scarce areas. To appropriately cope with droughts, there is the need to adopt adequate concepts relative to droughts and water scarcity, to properly use drought indices that help characterize them, including ones relative to their severity, and to develop prediction tools that may be useful for early warning and that may reduce the respective lead time needed for appropriate response. In this paper, concepts relative to drought and other water scarcity regimes are discussed aiming both to distinguish droughts from other water scarcity regimes and to base a common understanding of the general characteristics of droughts as hazards and disasters. Three main drought indices are described aiming at appropriate characterization of droughts: the theory of runs, the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI), and the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). Their application to local and regional droughts in the region of Alentejo, Portugal is presented focusing on the respective comparison and possible adequateness for drought monitoring. Results indicate some difficulties in using the theory of runs, particularly because it requires a subjective definition of thresholds in precipitation and does not provide a standardized classification of severity. Results show that drought characterization with the PDSI and the SPI produce coherent information, but the PDSI is limited relative to the SPI because it requires more data to perform a soil water balance while the SPI needs only precipitation data, which are more easily available in numerous locations. It is concluded that adopting the SPI is appropriate, but there is advantage in combining different indices to characterize droughts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The State of Ceará is located in the Northeast of Brazil, characterized by a semi-arid climate, with a pronounced time and space variability of its rainfall. Recurrent droughts have been plaguing the region, and as a result, water is stored in reservoirs as much as possible. However, it is has been shown that, despite the large amount of water stored in reservoirs, the water shortages still persisted. After years of having water resources management based only on supply side, Ceará State's current water policy emphasizes the demand side, including legal water rights, charging for water educational campaigns, and the decentralized decision making of the users through their participation in river basin committees. This policy is carried out by Secretariat of Water Resources (SRH), who motivates, analyzes, and formalizes the requests for water use rights, and the Company of Water Management of the State (COGERH), which acts as a catalytic agent in activities that support users' organization in river basins. This paper shows how Ceará is dealing with the initial allocation of water rights and analyzes the obstacles and challenges of that new way of managing water in the state. The model is still being implemented, but the differences in the results for overcoming the 1993 and 1998 droughts show the importance of having a dedicated institution for water management. A conceptual model is also presented representing the steps that could be followed for the implementation of a water market that is limited in space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rising temperatures and increased occurrences of droughts, brought on by climate change, are expected to affect reservoir water levels. We hypothesised that the decrease in reservoir volumes in dams with desert climates will favour the growth of phytoplankton biomass, measured as chlorophyll a (Chl a), under drought conditions. Using the threshold levels method of Q50, ten drought years were recorded in the Von Bach Dam (VB) in comparison to seven in the Swakoppoort Dam (SWP). Both dams had significant reduction in percentage volume (vol %). The Chl a in SWP was 81 µg l−1 in drought and 48 µg l−1 in AAR years, compared to VB with 21 µg l−1 in drought and 24 µg l−1 in AAR years. Cyanobacterial cell counts in drought and AAR years in SWP were 129 704 and 77 838 cells ml−1, respectively, while cell counts in drought and AAR years in VB were 5 925 cells ml−1 and 20 070 cells ml−1, respectively. Decreases in phytoplankton biomass and total cyanobacteria were observed in SWP but not in VB. The pattern and magnitude of the statistically significant responses (t-test, p < 0.05) between physico-chemical and biological water quality variables varied among drought and AAR years. We conclude that that there is no clear correlation between drought and phytoplankton biomass from this study and that other anthropogenic–environmental drivers, such as land use impacts, will be needed to further elucidate the response of water quality to droughts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses water delivery technology in Australia. It states that Australian capital cities have been living with storage levels lower than this for most of this century, never running out of water nor having augmentations in place. It discusses on graphical superposition of reservoir operational drawdown levels and restricting supply during normal droughts of selected probabilities of occurrence and water levels initiating headworks augmentation.

Depletion of water resources and soil moisture leading to drought is a global concern and the effective assessment and monitoring using a drought model has become essential. A detailed account of frequency, run length and temporal trend of the drought events are presented in the study from 1981 to 2019 at the 1-, 3-, 6-, 9-, 12- and 24-month timescale using the Standardized Precipitation Index and Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index. SPI recorded more drought months in the extreme category with 14 months at Gubbi station for example, while SPEI showed only 5 months. SPEI showed longer drought length in moderate and severe categories for agricultural and hydrological drought. At a 1- month timescale, both the indices reported extreme drought events where Tiptur station in May 2016 (–4.75) and Chikkanayakanahalli station in March 1992 (–2.76) were the worst-case scenarios. The study aims at providing practical results to facilitate decision-makers for drought risk management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interannual variability of rainfall caused by the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) results in significant changes in hydrologic conditions. Forecasting ENSO and its impacts are mainly based on Central Pacific Sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies which satisfactorily correlate with timing and, to a lesser extent, the intensity of drought conditions in the Philippines and the Western Pacific during the El Niño phase. Changes in sea surface height (SSH) are also brought upon by ENSO through seawater density changes with temperature and oceanographic processes. Here, we report that the associative nature of SSH and drought, as measured by surface runoff, has a better correlation (r > 0.693, p < 0.05) in terms of the expected timing (1 to 3 month lag) and intensity compared to using SST indices. Furthermore, since SSH is co-located with its corresponding forecasted decrease in runoff, a localised prediction can be made which further increases the accuracy of this predictive tool and can be used in tandem with SST-based ENSO indices. In the wake of a changing climate, the ability to forecast the timing and volume of rainfall and surface water availability is of utmost importance, especially within the context of food and water security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diverse and complex water management systems have been created in many areas of the world to manage the risk of drought. The primary challenge is the inherent uncertainty of water supply and demand over time, which makes the process of correctly allocating water rights annually a difficult and costly task. As a result, risk averse water authorities make overly conservative estimates of water supply. This paper introduces the use of a rainfall index contract as a tool to improve drought management. An irrigation district in New South Wales, Australia, is used as an illustration of the concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adoption of technically efficient irrigation systems can mitigate the effects of drought by allowing irrigators to maintain water consumption with reduced applications. This paper uses survey data from the worst drought in Colorado's history to examine how drought conditions affect the choice of irrigation system by irrigators. Results indicate that drought conditions did significantly increase the percentage of farms using more efficient sprinkler systems relative to gravity systems. The key factors affecting the decision were land tenure, farm scale and available water supply, suggesting that those enterprises with the most owned land, the highest number of acres and the most reliable water supplies are most likely to invest in more efficient irrigation systems during severe droughts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reliable seasonal forecasting of water resources variability may be of great value for agriculture and energy management in Ethiopia. This work aims to develop statistical forecasting of seasonal total water storage (TWS) anomalies in Ethiopia using sea-surface temperature and sea-level pressure indices. Because of the spatial and temporal variability of TWS over the country, Ethiopia is divided into four regions each having similar TWS dynamics. Periods of long-term water deficit observed in GRACE TWS products for the region are found to coincide with periods of meteorological drought. Multiple linear regression is employed to generate seasonal forecasting models for each region. We find that the skill of the resulting models varies from region to region, with R2 from 0.33 to 0.73 and correlation from 0.27 to 0.77 between predicted and observed values (using leave-one-out cross-validation). The skill of the models is better than the climatology in all regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study details the Hydro Intelligent Toolkit (K-HIT) developed in 2002 by K-water, the Korean water agency, to cope with extreme events such as floods and droughts. It is structured to outline the challenges to water management in Korea, the development and components of K-HIT, its effectiveness in practice, and lessons learned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power plants often use river waters for cooling purposes and can be sensitive to droughts and low flows. Water quality is also a concern, due to algal blooms and sediment loads that might clog filters. We assessed the impacts of droughts on river flow and water quality from the point of view of power plant operation. The INCA (INtegrated CAtchment) water quality model was coupled with a climate model to create a dataset of flow and water quality time series, using the River Trent (UK) as a case study. The result hints to a significant decrease in flows and an increase in phosphorus concentrations, potentially enhancing algal production. Power plants should expect more stress in the future based on the results of this study, due to reduced cooling water availability and decreasing upstream water quality. This issue might have serious consequences also on the whole national power network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this present era of the Anthropocene, human activities affect hydrology and droughts. Quantifying this human influence improves our understanding and builds fundamental knowledge for water resource management. Analysis of observation data is useful in progressing this knowledge as these human activities and feedbacks are intrinsically included. Therefore, here we present an observation-based approach, the upstream-downstream comparison, to quantify changes in hydrological drought downstream of a human activity. We demonstrate this approach in a basin in northern Chile, where a reservoir was introduced. A sensitivity analysis is performed to assess how different choices of drought analysis threshold can affect the results and interpretation. We find that many commonly used choices do not exclude human activities from the threshold and therefore could be underestimating the change detected due to the human influence. The upstream-downstream comparison avoids this through the application of the upstream station threshold rather than the human-influenced downstream station. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how the continuing drought and water crisis in Cape Town in 2017 and 2018 created the conditions for the increasing visibility and public awareness of water and its infrastructures. Following Susan Leigh Star's famous observation that infrastructure is typically invisible until it breaks down, this article shows how the threat of the total collapse of the water and sanitation system during the drought contributed to rendering water and its infrastructures politically legible. It also contributed to making infrastructural disparities more visible. For instance, while anti-privatisation activists established the Water Crisis Coalition (WCC) to challenge increased water tariffs and 'defend the commons' (that is, by calling for wider public access to the city's dozens of springs), many middle-class residents in the historically white suburbs sought to go 'off the grid' by purchasing water tanks, boreholes and using their swimming pools as water reservoirs. At the same time, new 'water facts' surfaced, revealing that while residents in impoverished informal settlements used only 4.7 per cent of the city's water, middle class Capetonians in the suburbs used over 70 per cent. Yet, as a result of increased tariffs and social and moral pressure, the latter drew on a variety of water conservation methods and technologies to reduce their consumption dramatically. This article examines these expressions of 'hydraulic citizenship', forms of civic activism that drew on the production and circulation of 'water facts' and moral and political claims to water, which were often contested by differentially situated citizens, activists, journalists, scientists and City of Cape Town officials. This contributed to a contentious politics of water and its infrastructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the feasibility of towing icebergs to irrigate arid lands in the Southern Hemisphere. Around 85% of the available fresh water of the world can be found as ice in Greenland and the Antartic. Water produced by one super-tug can irrigate a square field measuring 126 kilometers on a side. The said feasibility, however, should address potential problems, such as reduction of melting losses, towing analysis, difficulty of controlling the tows, processing of ice, and anchoring of tow lines.

The 2012-2015 drought in north-central coastal California ranks among the three most prolonged periods of below-median annual rainfall in the past 65 years. In three critical coho salmon streams, summer baseflow was less each additional dry year; streams with summer flow early in the drought had no flow for more than two months in latter years. By the third dry year, summer discharge was 1-5% of recent wet-type years, and 10-20% of the first dry year. Multiannual drought also caused increased dry channel conditions: the percentage of flowing channel reduced from 28 to 55% from the first to the third dry years among three study streams. In the first year following drought, dry-season streamflow resembled early to-mid-drought conditions, while in the second, it approached pre-drought discharge. This multiannual drought foreshadows how multi-annual drought predicted under future climate scenarios may affect critical salmonid streams later this century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Kenyan Constitution calls for a devolved response to the stewardship of water and other natural resources. A case study based on planners’ experiences illustrates the shift towards a governance approach that is inclusive, integrates available technologies to achieve resilience to both flood and drought, and works across scales from the settlement to the catchment. Devolution is a slow process, and the challenges are many. Recent observations show that increasing local agency in water resource development is helping alleviate drought and flood emergencies. Nevertheless, more concerted action is still needed from the centre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A streamflow drought climatology was developed over the Central Andes of Argentina, a semi-arid region highly vulnerable to climatic variations, based on the analysis of daily historical streamflow records. A threshold level approach was applied on a daily basis for three different severity levels in order to depict the main characteristics of droughts – number of drought events, mean duration and mean severity – over the period 1957–2014. Based on three annual indices that summarize the frequency of drought events, their duration and severity, we identified the main regional dry periods and the main modes of variability through an empirical decomposition. These modes are linked to La Niña conditions on inter-annual time scales and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation for the decadal variations, showing the influence of the tropical Pacific Ocean in the development of streamflow drought conditions and its relevance for potential predictability of hydroclimatic variations over the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

West Africa experienced severe drought during the 1970s and 1980s, posing a threat to water resources. A wetter climate more recently suggests recovery from the drought. The Mann-Kendall trend and Theil-Sen’s slope estimator were applied to detect probable trends in weather elements in four sub-basins of the Niger River Basin between 1970 and 2010. The cross-entropy method was used to detect breakpoints in rainfall and runoff, Spearman’s rank test for correlation between the two, and cross-correlation analysis for possible lags. Results showed an overall increase in rainfall and runoff and a decrease in sunshine duration. Spearman’s coefficients suggest significant (5%) moderate to strong rainfall–runoff correlation for three sub-basins. A significant lower runoff was observed around 1979, with a rainfall break around 1992, indicating possible cessation of the drought. Temperatures increased significantly, at 0.02–0.05°C year-1, with a negative wind speed trend for most stations. Half of the stations exhibited an increase in potential evapotranspiration.EDITOR M.C. AcremanASSOCIATE EDITOR Not assigned [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, water scarcity has resulted in the need for re-evaluating demand management policies, as well as the identification of alternative water supplies. Specifically, water utilities have been focusing on increasing the adoption of household level decentralised water systems (DWS). While such engineering solutions may be effective, understanding the factors which influence adoption is crucial for widespread uptake. Protection Motivation (PM) theory was used to assess DWS adoption in a sample of 295 homeowners across South East Queensland, Australia. Results provided good support for the application of PM theory to understanding whether people cope adaptively to water shortage threats. The model’s hypothesised link between adaptive coping and behavioural intention was also supported, suggesting PM theory can be used to understand people’s intention to adopt DWS in the context of the drought. The predictive ability of the PM model improved significantly when demographic variables – age and perceived water – use were included. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Sustainable development of cities requires robust water supply systems, yet many cities need to resort to ad hoc measures when faced with a drought. This article aims to explore how cities can do better in reducing the risk of water shortage due to drought. To that end, a classification of drought measures in urban water supply systems is proposed, and then applied to 10 cities that recently faced a drought. We find that these cities used a relatively limited number and variety of measures. The classification can help cities evaluate different types of measures for reducing long-term water stress and limit the impact of extreme droughts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This work examines 140 hydrological studies conducted in the Mediterranean region. It identifies key characteristics of the hydrological responses of Mediterranean catchments at various time scales and compares different methods and modelling approaches used for individual-catchment studies. The study area is divided into the northwestern (NWM), eastern (EM) and southern (SM) Mediterranean. The analysis indicates regional discrepancies in which the NWM shows the most extreme rainfall regime. A tendency for reduced water resources driven by both anthropogenic and climatic pressures and a more extreme rainfall regime are also noticeable. Catchments show very heterogeneous responses over time and space, resulting in limitations in hydrological modelling and large uncertainties in predictions. However, few models have been developed to address these issues. Additional studies are necessary to improve the knowledge of Mediterranean hydrological features and to account for regional specificities.Editor D. Koutsoyiannis Associate editor A. Efstratiadis [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This review article discusses the climate, water resources and historical droughts of Africa, drought indices, vulnerability, impact of global warming and land use for drought-prone regions in West, southern and the Greater Horn of Africa, which have suffered recurrent severe droughts in the past. Recent studies detected warming and drying trends in Africa since the mid 20th century. Based on the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5), both northern and southern Africa are projected to experience drying, such as decreasing precipitation, runoff and soil moisture in the 21st century and could become more vulnerable to the impact of droughts. The daily maximum temperature is projected to increase by up to 8°C (RCP8.5 of CMIP5), precipitation indices such as total wet day precipitation (PRCPTOT) and heavy precipitation days (R10 mm) could decrease, while warm spell duration (WSDI) and consecutive dry days (CDD) could increase. Uncertainties of the above long-term projections, teleconnections to climate anomalies such as ENSO and the Madden-Julian Oscillation, which could also affect the water resources of Africa, and capacity building in terms of physical infrastructure and non-structural solutions are also discussed. Given that traditional climate and hydrological data observed in Africa are generally limited, satellite data should also be exploited to fill the data gap for Africa in the future.Editor D. Koutsoyiannis; Associate editor N. Ilich [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Urmia Lake is a vivid example of negligence in providing the environmental water requirement rooted in prolonged droughts and excessive upstream water withdrawal. The aim of this study is to propose a reclamation strategy for the lake by focusing on estimation of environmental requirement thresholds under various drought severity conditions. On the average, the lake will remain in a moderate hydrological drought condition if the business-as-usual scenario prevails. The shares of natural drought, water withdrawals and water resources development projects (i.e. dams) in recent lake inflow reduction are estimated at 45%, 40% and 15%, respectively; thus, the aggregated contribution of human-induced factors has a more significant impact on the current lake condition than that of natural drought, and a firm and consistent approach to reduce water consumption by the agricultural sector is required for lake reclamation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Water Resources Journal / Revue Canadienne des Ressources Hydriques is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Groundwater investigations for drought water supply for the greater Sydney area were initiated in the Sydney Basin in late 2004 as part of the NSW Government's Metropolitan Water Plan suite of initiatives to find emergency water-supply sources during a severe drought period. A number of priority areas were drilled and tested between 2004 and 2008 to assess the groundwater resource potential of several Triassic and Permian sandstone units. At Kangaloon in the Southern Highlands, the Triassic fractured Hawkesbury Sandstone aquifers were prospective for emergency water supply with bore yields generally in excess of 3 L/s for most sites with the occasional site in excess of 30 L/s. Water levels were mostly less than 15 metres (m) from the surface with artesian conditions at several sites. The water quality was excellent with the areas within the proposed borefield area all having salinities less than 400 μS/cm. At Leonay–Emu Plains in western Sydney, the Hawkesbury Sandstone was thicker than at Kangaloon, and bore yields were consistently higher with predicted yields (to last several years) assessed to be between 10 and 20 L/s. Artesian conditions prevail to the north of Emu Plains. Water salinities up to 1700 μS/cm were identified with the best water quality below 80 m where the salinities were generally less than 400 μS/cm. At Wallacia, in southwestern Sydney, there was more variability in the permeability of the Hawkesbury Sandstone with predicted bore yields assessed to be between 2 and 10 L/s, although there were a couple of sites with yields of up to 40 L/s. Artesian conditions prevail to the south of Wallacia in the Bents Basin area. Water salinities up to 4300 μS/cm were identified in the Hawkesbury Sandstone with the best water quality below 150 m where the salinities were generally between 400 and 1600 μS/cm. The older Triassic and Permian sandstone units were not prospective for emergency water supply at the locations that were investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent water reform in Australia has focused on seeking to balance the needs of the environment and consumptive users through improved flow regimes. This is in response to declining ecological conditions, exacerbated by drought and the threat of climate change particularly in the Murray-Darling Basin. A programme of environmental flows integrated through multiple governance layers and managed by an independent federal-government entity operating in the water market on behalf of the environment has been established to help rectify the decline. While a challenge for this new entity involves determining when to release, trade or carry over water in storage so as to maximize environmental outcomes, early results point to real environmental gains within a highly regulated and diverse river system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Hydrological Sciences Journal/Journal des Sciences Hydrologiques is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Hydrological Sciences Journal/Journal des Sciences Hydrologiques is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The five provinces of southwestern China, Sichuan, Chongqing, Guizhou, Yunnan and Guangxi, frequently suffer from droughts, especially the recent severe drought of five consecutive months from autumn 2009 to spring 2010, which caused serious water shortages, huge economic losses and adverse social consequences. With increasing human activity in the last 200 years, the wetland areas have decreased and their ecological functions such as water conservation, climate regulation have declined, which has a direct impact on climate and the ecological environment. Using satellite images, changes in wetland areas of the five provinces of southwestern China have been mapped from 1970 to 2008. Our detailed analysis shows that the wetland area in the 1970s, 1990, 2000 and 2008 occupy an area of 20822.9, 18386.16, 19904.22 and 17269.72 km2, respectively, which indicate that the wetland areas have a downtrend, at an accelerating rate, from 2000 to 2008. Considering the complexity between wetland change and drought, the correlation between spatial and temporal wetland change and drought have been analysed using monthly ground meteorological data from 1971 to 2009, obtained from the China Meteorological Data Sharing Service Network. The analysed results show that the decrease of the wetland area, damage to biological resources and decline in climate regulation function are closely related to serious drought problems in the five provinces of southwestern China. Finally the corresponding solutions are discussed by analysing the problems faced by the wetland ecological system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatial and temporal characteristics of droughts were investigated to provide a framework for agriculture practices, engineering facilities and sustainable water resources management in the Tel river basin which is about 2756 km2 and lies between 19°17' and 20°00'N and 82°30' and 82°59'E in Kalahandi district of Odisha, India. Using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) as an indicator of drought severity for the period from 1965 to 2008, the characteristics of droughts were examined. The multiple-time scaled SPI values were evaluated for May-October months and point-wise indices were interpolated over the whole area using spatial interpolation technique in Arc GIS 9.2, in order to obtain areal extension of the drought severity. The results indicated that a dramatic and widespread drought event was recorded in the year 2002 at most of the stations and drought categories. However, regardless of the drought severity, an extraordinary dryness was experienced in the years 1966, 1972, 1979, 1987 and 2002 in the entire study area. It was observed that 10 years were successively dry during May at Jayapatna station from 1999 to 2008 in the 6-month drought category. The highest SPI value of -3.06 was observed in July 2002 in the Dharamgarh station in the 9-month drought category. The overall outcome of this study demonstrates that severe and extreme droughts were experienced from time to time across the study area leading to unfavourable results on agricultural practices and water resources in the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Annals of the Association of American Geographers is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The spatial characterization of droughts in the Conchos River Basin, which includes the regional drought recurrence and areal coverage, was performed to provide information for integrated water resources management in the basin. The application presented in this study was based on the semi-nonparametric model and the nonparametric bivariate frequency analysis developed for characterizing droughts in a basin. The drought characterization curves constructed in this study describe the spatial and recurrent pattern of droughts in the basin with respect to drought seventies and return periods. Based on the synthetic Palmer Drought Severity Index, historical droughts were evaluated. The results show that the 1990s drought has affected large areas with longer durations and greater seventies than the 1960s drought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The temporal and spatial characteristics of droughts are investigated to provide a framework for sustainable water resources management in a semi-arid region. Using the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) as an indicator of drought severity, the characteristics of droughts are examined in the Conchos River Basin in Mexico. This basin is important to both the United States and Mexico, because the Conchos River supplies approximately 80 percent of the flows of the Lower Bravo/Grande River above the binational reservoirs of Amistad and Falcon. The temporal and spatial characteristics of the PDSI are used to develop a drought intensity — areal extent — frequency curve that can assess the severity of a regional drought in the basin. The analysis of the PDSI suggests that the Conchos River Basin had a severe drought in the 1990s, which the basin has not experienced before. Based on this analysis, the recent drought that occurred in the 1990s has an associated return period of about 80 to 100 years over the basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the factors behind the 1995 drought in Yorkshire, England. Drought as a production scarcity; Natural, social and discursive elements of water scarcity; Implications of water industry privatization.

Freshwater is a finite and vulnerable resource. The fragility of the world's water resources is likely to become more acute unless future strategies recognise the crucial links between water, the environment, development and international security. Environmental change could have resounding effects on water, leading to extreme scenarios of drought or flooding. Developmental practices that treat water as a plentiful and robust resource are likely to result in severe depletion of its quality and thereby diminish its capacity for human consumption and other uses. Water is already scarce in certain regions of the world. Uncertainty about future supplies may exacerbate political tensions within states and lead to conflict between them, especially over international watercourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]