Controls on hydrologic drought duration for basins with near-natural streamflow in Europe and the USA

Abstract: Climate classification systems, such as Köppen–Geiger and the aridity index, are often used in large-scale drought modeling studies and in drought monitoring and early warning systems to stratify regions with similar hydro-climatic drought properties. What is currently lacking is a large-scale evaluation of the relation between climate and hydrologic drought characteristics. In this study we explored how suitable common climate classifications are for differentiating river basins according to their characteristic hydrologic drought duration and whether drought durations within the same climate classes are comparable between different regions. This study uses a dataset of 808 near-natural streamflow records from Europe and the USA to answer these questions.
First, we grouped drought duration distributions of each record over different classes of climate classification systems and individual climate and catchment controls. Then, we compared these drought duration distributions of all classes within each climate classification system or classification based on individual controls. Results showed that climate classification systems that include absolute precipitation in their classification scheme (e.g., the aridity index) are most suitable to differentiate basins according to drought duration within both the USA and Europe. However, differences in duration distributions were found for the same climate classes in Europe and the USA. These differences are likely caused by differences in precipitation, in catchment controls as expressed by the base flow index and in differences in climate beyond the total water balance (e.g., seasonality in precipitation), which have shown to exert a control on drought duration as well. Climate classification systems that include an absolute precipitation control can be tailored into drought monitoring and early warning systems for Europe and the USA to define regions with different sensitivities to hydrologic droughts, which, for example, have been found to be higher in basins with a low aridity index. However, stratification of basins according to these climate classification systems is likely to be complemented with information of other climate classification systems (Köppen–Geiger) and individual controls (precipitation and the base flow
index), especially in a comparative study between Europe and the USA

Angaben zum Objekt

• Standort: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Umfang: Online-Ressource
• Sprache: Englisch
• Anmerkungen: Hydrology and earth system sciences. 20 (2016), 4043-4059, DOI 10.5194/hess-20-4043-2016, issn: 1607-7938 ; IN COPYRIGHT http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0 rs

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Geowissenschaften

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wo): Freiburg
• (wer): Universität
• (wann): 2016
• Urheber: Tijdeman, Erik ; Bachmair, Sophie ; Stahl, Kerstin
• Beteiligte Personen und Organisationen: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg. Professur für Hydrologie, 2013- ; Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg. Institut für Geo- und Umweltnaturwissenschaften ; Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg. Fakultät für Umwelt und Natürliche Ressourcen ; Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg

Weitere Informationen

• DOI: 10.5194/hess-20-4043-2016
• URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:25-freidok-120948
• Rechteinformation: Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 15.08.2025, 07:34 MESZ