Evaluation of the impact of anthropogenic storage on the hydrological drought propagation in two contrasting semi-arid river basins

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study quantitatively investigated reservoir-effects on drought propagation in two semi-arid river basins: India’s Tapi basin with the Ukai reservoir and Uzbekistan’s Chirchik basin with the Charvak reservoir. Meteorological drought (MD) is analyzed using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and hydrological drought (HD) using the Standardized Streamflow Index (SSI) for the duration from 1980 to 2004. Both the river basins, especially in upstream reservoir areas, exhibited a notable correlation between HD and MD. Reservoir operation was observed to reduce the downstream MD–HD correlation at shorter SPI timescales. Hit-score-based evaluations indicated that reservoir operation has induced changes in the drought propagation patterns for both river basins. Due to the contrasting characteristics, the river basins showed a significant variation in the drought propagation time (DPT), with distinct influences from monsoon (Tapi) and snow-melting (Chirchik). The average DPT (average DPT over 12 months) for the reservoir-influenced part of the Tapi (∼ six months) and Chirchik (∼ nine months) basins is higher than that of the natural parts of both basins (Tapi: ∼ four months; Chirchik: ∼ six months) as a result of the natural and anthropogenic storage influence.