Abstract
This paper summarises different techniques for defining a drought. Hydrologists as distinct from economists or social scientists define drought according to water deficits in some component of the hydrological cycle (precipitation, soil moisture, river flow and groundwater) or the impact on the level of service provided to public water supply, irrigation or hydropower demands. Generic features of droughts are their severity, frequency, duration and spatial extent. For operational purposes it is essential that a wide range of analytical procedures are used according to the response characteristics of the resource system. However, for comparisons of drought severity over time and between countries, there may be merit in applying simple procedures for drought frequency assessment.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Abu Zeid, M. and Abdel-Dayem, S. (1990) The Nile, the Aswan High Dam and the 1979–1988 Drought, in Transactions of 14th Congress on Irrigation and Drainage, Rio de Janeiro, Vol. I-C, International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID), 319–334.
Alexander, G. N. (1962) The Use of the Gamma Distribution in Estimating Regulated Output from Storages, Civil Engineering Transactions, The Institution of Civil Engineers, Australia, CE 4 (1): 29–34.
Baldwin-Wiseman, W.R. (1941) Further Cartographic Studies of Drought, Quart. J. Roy. Met. Soc. 67(288): 39–47, quoted from WMO (1975).
Banerji, S. and Chabra, B.M. (1964) Drought Characteristics and Estimating Probabilities of Their Occurrence, in Surface Waters Symposium, WMO/IASH, Belgium, Publication No. 63, 189–192.
Bates, C.G. (1935) Climatic Characteristics of the Plains Region, in M. Silcox, et al. (eds.), Possibilities of Shelterbelt Planting in the Plains Region, Washington D.C., quoted from WMO (1975).
Bazza, M. and Stockton, C.W. (1990) Variabilité spatiale et chronologique du climat Marocain et importance de l’irrigation dans l’amélioration de ses potentialités pour les cultures pluviales, in Transactions of 14th Congress on Irrigation and Drainage, Rio de Janeiro, Vol. 1-C, International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) 233–249.
Benson, C. and Clay, E. (1994) The Impact of Drought on Sub-Saharan African Economies: A Preliminary Examination, Overseas Development Institute (ODI) Working Paper 77, London, ISBN 0 85003 212 1.
Ben-Zvi, A. (1987) Indices of Hydrological Drought in Israel, J. Hydrol. 92: 179–191.
Beran, M. and Rodier, J.A. (1985) Hydrological Aspects of Drought, Studies and Reports in Hydrology 39, UNESCO-WMO, Paris.
Bidwell, V.J. (1972) A Methodology for Analysing Agricultural Drought, in Floods and Droughts. Proceedings of the Second International Symposium in Hydrology, Sept. 11–13, 1972, Colorado, USA, 515–522.
Blumenstock, G. (1942) Drought in the United States Analysed by Means of the Theory of Probability, USDA Technical Bulletin 819, 5 p, quoted from WMO (1975).
Bonacci, O. (1993) Hydrological Identification of Drought, Hydrological Processes 7: 249–262.
Bova, N.V. (1941) Agrometeorological Indices in the South-Eastern USSR, Socialistic Grain Farming, No. 3, quoted from WMO (1975).
British Rainfall Organisation (1936) British Rainfall,Air Ministry, Meteorological Office, London, quoted from WMO (1975).
Brutsaert, W. (1972) Moisture Availability as it Relates to Droughts, in Floods and Droughts, Proceedings of the Second International Symposium in Hydrology, Sept. 11–13, 1972, Colorado, USA.
Bruwer, J.J. (1990) Drought Policy in the Republic of South Africa, in Proceedings of the SARCCUS Workshop on Drought, June 1989, ISBN 0 949986 24 0.
Bryant, S.J., Arnell, N.W., and Law, F.M. (1992) The Long-term Context for the Current Hydrological Drought, Proceedings of the IWEM Conference on the Management of Scarce Water Resources.
Burnash, R.J.C. and Ferrai, R.L. (1972) Generalized Hydrologic Modelling, a Key to Drought Analysis, in Floods and Droughts, Proceedings of the Second International Symposium in Hydrology, Sept. 11–13, 1972, Colorado, USA, 503–514.
Chang, T.J. and Stenson, J.R. (1990) Is it Realistic to Define a 100-year Drought for Water Management? Water Resources Bulletin 26 (5): 823–829.
Clarke, R. (1991) Water: the International Crisis,Earthscan Publications with Swedish Red Cross, London, ISBN 1853831050.
Cole, H.S. (1933) Droughts in Arkansas, Monthly Weather Review 61: 129–140, quoted from WMO (1975).
Condra, G.E. (1944) Drought, Its Effects and Measures of Control in Nebraska, Nebraska University, Conservation and Survey Division, Conservation Bulletin 25, quoted from WMO (1975).
Dezman, L.E., Shafer, B.A., Simpson, H.D., and Danielson, J.A. (1982) Development of a Surface Water Supply Index — A Drought Severity Indicator for Colorado, in Proceedings Int. Symp. on Hydrometeorology, American Water Resources Association (AWRA), June 13–17, 1982, Colorado, USA, 337–341.
Diaz, H.F. (1983) Drought in the United States. Some Aspects of Major Dry and Wet Periods in the Contiguous United States, 1895–1981, Journal of Climate and Applied Meteorology 22 (1): 3–16.
Dracup, J.A., Seong Lee, K., and Paulson Jr, E.G. (1980) On the Definition of Droughts, Water Resources Research 16: 297–302.
Emberger, L. (1955) Une classification biogéographique des climats, Recueil des travaux, Fac. Sc. de l’Univ. de Montpellier, Fasc. 7, quoted from WMO (1975).
Fitzpatrick, E.A. (1953) Probability Analysis of Rainfall Factors in Drought in New South Wales,Rural
Bank of N. S. Wales and N. S. Wales Dept. of Lands, Australia, 54 p, quoted from WMO (1975).
Fitzpatrick, E.A. (1965) Climate of the Tipperary Area, CSIRO, Melbourne, Land Research Series No. 13, quoted from WMO (1975)
Foley, J. C. (1957) Drought in Australia, Bureau of Meteorology, Bulletin No. 43, 281 p.
Frere, M. and Popov, G.F. (1979) Agrometeorological Crop Monitoring and Forecasting, Plant Production and Protection Paper 17, FAO, Rome.
Garen, D.C. (1993) Revised Surface-Water Supply Index for the Western United States, Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 119 (4): 437–454.
Guerrero-Salazar, P. and Yevjevich, V. (1975) Analysis of Drought Characteristics by the Theory of Runs, Hydrology Paper 80, Colorado State University, Colorado.
Gupta, V.K. (1972) Droughts as Extreme Distributions from a Point Rainfall Process, in Floods and Droughts. Proceedings of the Second International Symposium in Hydrology, Sept. I1–13, 1972, Colorado, USA.
Guttman, N.B., Wallis, J.R. and Hosking, J.R.M. (1992) Spatial Comparability of the Palmer Drought Severity Index, Water Resources Bulletin 28 (6): 1111–1119.
Heddinghaus, T.R. (1991) Monitoring and Dissemination of Drought Conditions at the Joint Agricultural Weather Facility, in D. A. Wilhite, D. A. Wood, and P. A. Kay (eds.), Proceedings of the Seminar and Workshop on Drought Management and Planning, Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 67–72.
Henry, A.J. (1906) Drought, in Climatology of the United States, U.S. Weath. Rev. Bull. Q. Washington, WB Report No. 361: 51–58, quoted from WMO (1975).
Herbst, P.H., Bredenkamp, D.B., and Barker, H.M.G. (1966) A Technique for the Evaluation of Drought from Rainfall Data, Journal of Hydrology 4: 264–272.
Hershfield, D.M., Brakensiek, D.L., and Corner, G.H. (1972) Some Measures of Agricultural Drought, in Floods and Droughts, Proceedings of the Second International Symposium in Hydrology, Sept. 11–13, 1972, Colorado, USA, 491–502.
Hoyt, J.C. (1936) Droughts of 1930–1934, USGS Water Supply Paper No. 680, 106 p, quoted from WMO (1975).
Hulme, M. (ed.) (1996) Climate Change and Southern Africa: an Exploration of Some Potential Impacts and Implications for the SADCC region, Report commissioned by WWF International and co-ordinated by Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
Institute of Hydrology (1980) Low Flow Studies, Institute of Hydrology, Wallingford, U.K.
Karl, T.R. (1991) Climatological Drought Prediction in D.A. Wilhite, D.A. Wood, and P.A. Kay (eds.), Proceedings of the Seminar and Workshop on Drought Management and Planning, Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 9–16.
Kulshreshtha, S.N. and Klein, K. (1990) Drought Mitigation Through Large-scale Intensive Irrigation Projects–A Case Study of the South Saskatchewan River Project, in Transactions of 14th Congress on Irrigation and Drainage, Rio de Janeiro, Vol. 1-C, International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID), 13–28.
Marsh, T.J. and Lees, M.L. (1985) The 1984 Drought, Hydrological Data: UK Series, Institute of Hydrology/British Geological Survey.
Marsh, T.J., Monkhouse, R.A., Arnell, N.W., Lees, M.L., and Reynard, N.S. (1994) The 1988–92 Drought, Hydrological Data: UK Series, Institute of Hydrology/British Geological Survey.
de Martonne, E. (1926) Une nouvelle fonction climatologique: l’indice d’aridité, La Météorologie 2: 449–458, quoted from WMO (1975).
Mawdsley, J., Petts, G., and Walker, S. (1994) Assessment of Drought Severity,British Hydrological Society (BHS) Occasional Paper No. 3.
McMahon, T.A. and Diaz Arenas, A. (1982) Methods of Computation of Low Streamflow,Studies and Reports in Hydrology 36 UNESCO Paris 95.
McMahon, T.A. and Mein, R.G. (1986) River and Reservoir Yield. Water Resources Publications, USA, ISBN 0–918334–61–6.
Milian, J. (1972) Statistical Properties of Runs as Applied to Hydrologic Droughts, in Floods and Droughts. Proceedings of the Second International Symposium in Hydrology, Sept. 11–13, 1972, Colorado, USA, 534–550.
Milian, J. and Yevjevich, V. (1971) Probabilities of Observed Droughts, Hydrology Paper 50, Colorado State University, Colorado.
Ozga-Zielinska, M. (1989) Droughts and Floods–Their Definition and Modeling, in New Directions for Surface Water Modeling, IAHS Publication No. 181, 313–322.
Palfai, I. (1990) Description and Forecasting of Droughts in Hungary, in Transactions of 14th Congress on Irrigation and Drainage, Rio de Janeiro, Vol. 1-C. International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID), 151–158.
Palmer, W.C. (1965) Meteorological Drought, U. S. Weather Bureau, Washington D.C., Research Paper No. 45, quoted from WMO (1975).
Palmer, W.C. (1968) Keeping Track of Crop Moisture Conditions Nationwide: The New Crop Moisture Index, Weatherwise 21:156–161, quoted from WMO (1975).
Pereira, L.S. (1990) The Role of Irrigation in Mitigating the Effects of Drought, in Transactions of 14th Congress on Irrigation and Drainage, Rio de Janeiro, Vol. 1-F. International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID), G43.1 —G43. 27.
Petrasovits, 1. (1990) General Review on Drought Strategies, in Transactions of 14th Congress on Irrigation and Drainage, Rio de Janeiro, Vol. 1-C, International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID), 1–12.
du Pisani, A.L. (1990) Drought Detection, Monitoring and Early Warning, Proceedings SARCCUS Workshop on Drought, June 1989, ISBN 0949986240,6-Il.
Popov, V.P. (1948) Moisture Balance in the Soil and the Dryness Indices of Climate in the Ukrainian S.S.R, Sci. Rep. of the State Univ. of Kiev, Vol. 7(1), quoted from WMO (1975).
Ramana Rao, B.V., Sastri, A.S.R.A.S., and Rama Krishna, Y.S. (1981) An Integrated Scheme of Drought Classification as Applicable to the Indian Arid Region, IDOJARAS 85:317–22, quoted from Sastri (1993).
Ramdas, D.A. (1950) Rainfall and Agriculture, Ind. J. Met. and Geophys. 1(4): 262–274, quoted from WMO (1975).
Rickard, D.S. (1966) The Occurrence of Agriculture Drought at Ashburton N.Z. New Zealand Journal Agricultural Res., 431–441.
Ross, F A (1990) Irrigation District Operation on Water Shortage Conditions. The Alberta Experience, in Transactions of 14th Congress on Irrigation and Drainage, Rio de Janeiro, Vol. 1-C, International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID), 353–360.
Rossi, G., Benedini, M., Tsakiris, G., and Giakoumakis, S. (1992) On Regional Drought Estimation and Analysis, Water Resources Management 6: 249–277.
Sastri, A.S.R.A.S. (1993) Agricultural Drought Management Strategies to Alleviate Impacts: Examples from the Arid and Subhumid Regions of the Indian Subcontinent, in D.A. Wilhite (ed.), Drought Assessment, Management, and Planning: Theory and Case Studies, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 65–86.
Sastri, A.S.R.A.S., Rama Krishna, Y.S., and Ramana Rao, B.V. (1981) A New Method for Classifying Agricultural Droughts, Archiv. ftir Meteorologie, Geophysik und Bioklimatologie Ser. B 29: 283–287, quoted from Sastri (1993).
Selyaninov, G.T. (1930) Methods of Agricultural Climatology, in Agricultural Meteorology, No. 22 L, quoted from WMO (1975).
Sen, Z. (1976) Wet and Dry Periods of Annual Flow Series, J. Hydraulics Division 102 (HY10), American Society of Civil Engineers ( ASCE) Proc. Paper 12457, 1503–1514.
Sen, Z. (1980) Statistical Analysis of Hydrologic Critical Droughts, J. Hydraulics Division 106 (HY1), American Society of Civil Engineers ( ASCE) Proc. Paper 15134, 99–115.
Takeuchi, K. (1974) Regional Water Exchange for Drought Alleviation, Hydrology Paper 70, Colorado State University, Colorado.
Tannehill, I.R. (1947) Drought, Its Causes and Effects, Princeton University Press. 264 p, quoted from WMO (1975).
Tardieu, H. and Plus, B. (1990) Après la sécheresse des années 1984–1987 dans le bassin de la Garonne, France. Recommandations pour l’avenir, in Transactions of 14th Congress on Irrigation and Drainage, Rio de Janeiro, Vol. 1-C, International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID), 209–220.
Tase, N. (1976) Area-deficit-intensity Characteristics of Droughts, Hydrology Paper 87, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado.
Tate, E.L., Meigh, J.R., Prudhomme, C., and McCartney, M. (2000) Drought Assessment in Southern Africa Using River Flow Data, Final report to DFID for project R6573, Institute of Hydrology, Wallingford, UK.
Tennessee Valley Authority (1944) Precipitation in the Tennessee River Basin,TVA Hydraulic Data Division, quoted from WMO (1975).
Thomthwaite, C.W. (1931) The Climates of North America According to a New Classification, Geogr. Rev. 21: 633–655, quoted from WMO (1975).
Van Bavel, C.H.M. and Verlinden, F.J. (1956) Agricultural Drought in North Carolina, N.C. Agric. Experimental Station Tech. Bull. No. 122, quoted from WMO (1975).
Waitt, F.W.F. (1945) Studies of Droughts in the Sydney Catchment Areas, J. Inst. Engineers, Australia, 17 (4–5): 90–97.
Welsh National Water Development Authority (WNWDA), Directorate of Resource Planning, (1976) The 1975 Drought, Brecon, Wales.
World Meteorological Organisation (1975) Drought and Agriculture, Technical Note No. 138, WMO No. 392, Geneva, Switzerland.
World Meteorological Organisation (1994) Guide to Hydrological Practices. Data Acquisition and Processing, Analysis, Forecasting and Other Applications,Publication No. 168.
Yevjevich, V. (1967) An Objective Approach to Definitions and Investigations of Continental Hydrologic Droughts,Hydrology Paper 23, Colorado State University.
Zelenhasié, E. and Salvai, A. (1987) A Method of Streamflow Drought Analysis, Water Resources Research 23: 156–168.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2000 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Tate, E.L., Gustard, A. (2000). Drought Definition: A Hydrological Perspective. 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_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9472-1_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-5568-2
Online ISBN: 978-94-015-9472-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive