Historic hydrological droughts 1891–2015: systematic characterisation for a diverse set of catchments across the UK
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Published:2019-11-15
Issue:11
Volume:23
Page:4583-4602
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ISSN:1607-7938
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Container-title:Hydrology and Earth System Sciences
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language:en
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Short-container-title:Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.
Author:
Barker Lucy J.ORCID, Hannaford Jamie, Parry Simon, Smith Katie A.ORCID, Tanguy MalikoORCID, Prudhomme ChristelORCID
Abstract
Abstract. Hydrological droughts occur in all climate zones and can have severe impacts on society and the environment. Understanding historical
drought occurrence and quantifying severity is crucial for underpinning
drought risk assessments and developing drought management plans.
However, hydrometric records are often short and capture only a limited
range of variability. The UK is no exception: numerous severe droughts over
the past 50 years have been well captured by observations from a dense
hydrometric network. However, a lack of long-term observations means that
our understanding of drought events in the early 20th century and late
19th century is limited. Here we take advantage of new reconstructed
flow series for 1891 to 2015 to identify and characterise historic
hydrological droughts for 108 near-natural catchments across the UK using
the standardised streamflow index (SSI). The identified events are ranked
according to four event characteristics (duration, accumulated deficit, mean
deficit and maximum intensity), and their severity is reviewed in the context
of events of the recent past (i.e. the last 50 years). This study represents the first national-scale assessment and ranking of hydrological droughts. Whilst known major drought events were identified, we also shed light on events which were regionally important, such as those in 1921 and 1984 (which were important in the south-east and north-west of the UK, respectively). Events which have been poorly documented, such as those of the 1940s in the post-war years or the early 1970s (prior to the landmark 1975–1976 event), were found to be important in terms of their spatial coverage and severity. This improved knowledge of historic events can support improved long-term water resource planning approaches. Given the universal importance of historical drought appraisal, our systematic approach to historical drought assessment provides a methodology that could be applied in other settings internationally.
Funder
Natural Environment Research Council
Publisher
Copernicus GmbH
Subject
General Earth and Planetary Sciences,General Engineering,General Environmental Science
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