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Assessment of the Vulnerability of a River System to Drought

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Drought and Drought Mitigation in Europe

Part of the book series: Advances in Natural and Technological Hazards Research ((NTHR,volume 14))

Abstract

Based on the regionalisation of recession parameters a method has been developed to estimate streamflow drought vulnerability along a river system. Drought predisposition of a river is defined by the time period TD until the threshold for drought flow QD is reached under dry weather conditions. A multiple regression analysis with basin properties was carried out using the parameters of 55 gauged catchments. Recession parameters, initial discharges QMS and drought threshold discharges were regionalised. Supported by GIS functions and network topology, aggregated recession curves were derived for every 2.5 km along the river network and thus the time period TD could be estimated. This first test of the method was carried out in the study area of southwest Germany and the results and comparisons with earlier studies are satisfying. The visualised results show the degree of vulnerability of river stretches to droughts.

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© 2000 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Demuth, S., Lehner, B., Stahl, K. (2000). Assessment of the Vulnerability of a River System to Drought. In: Vogt, J.V., Somma, F. (eds) Drought and Drought Mitigation in Europe. Advances in Natural and Technological Hazards Research, vol 14. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9472-1_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9472-1_16

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-5568-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-015-9472-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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