New UK drought research using NRFA data

Submitted by Steve Turner on

Colleagues from the National Hydrological Monitoring Programme have recently published open-access papers that use NRFA data to investigate drought characteristics, propagation and termination in the UK.

Lucy Barker's (CEH) paper, "From meteorological to hydrological drought using standardised indicators" was published on the 24th June in Hydrology & Earth System Sciences. Standardised drought indicators (Standardised Precipitation Index and Standardised Streamflow Index) rarely applied in the UK previously are used to investigate meteorological and hydrological drought characteristics and the propagation from one to the other, as well as links between drought characteristics and climate/catchment properties. An output from the Belmont Forum-funded DrIVER (Drought Impacts: Vulnerability thresholds in monitoring and Early-warning Research) project, it aims to better understand how these standardised drought indicators characterise drought hazard in the UK and how such indicators could be used to improve the hydrological aspects of drought monitoring and early warning systems in the UK and elsewhere.

 

Simon Parry's (CEH & Loughborough University) paper, "Drought termination: concept and characterisation" was published on the 27th June in Progress in Physical Geography. The paper reviews previous research, highlighting limitations associated with current definitions and suggesting an improved approach for identifying and characterising drought termination. The utility of the approach is demonstrated through a case study application to the termination of the 2009-12 drought in the UK, and further avenues of future research are outlined. The termination of a drought has been relatively neglected, despite being perhaps the most important phase during which important decisions must be made in terms of managing water resources. The authors hope that the improved approach introduced here will help to stimulate further research on key questions around the characterisation and propagation of drought termination.

 

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