Comprehensive evaluation of the response relationship between meteorological drought and hydrological drought in the Yalong River Basin, China

Extreme climate events are becoming increasingly severe owing to global warming. In recent years, the Yalong River has experienced frequent droughts, which has seriously hindered the development of hydropower. Based on standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) and standardized runoff index (SRI) values, this study employed transfer entropy, multivariate Copula functions, and a cloud model to study the response relationship and risk situation between meteorological and hydrological droughts. The results showed that: (1) The smaller the scale of SPEI and SRI, the more sensitive the identification of drought and the faster the detection of drought trend changes. (2) Combined with small-scale drought index analyses, the trend and severity of meteorological and hydrological droughts propagating from the upper and middle reaches to the lower reaches is increasing from year to year. (3) The Gumbel-Hougaard Copula function reveals the relationship between meteorological and hydrological drought, with the longest joint return period of 13–15 months. (4) In cloud model risk evaluation, the degree, uncertainty and stochasticity of drought risk in the basin are increasing, and the risk degree of interannual meteorological and seasonal hydrological droughts in the basin was high. This study provides theoretical support for optimizing water resource allocation and drought risk situation analysis in the basin.