Comparative Analysis of Drought Indices in Hydrological Monitoring in Ceará’s Semi-Arid Basins, Brazil

The purpose of this work is to evaluate the applicability of five drought indices (Surface Water Supply Index—SWSI, Reclamation Drought Index—RDI, Streamflow Drought Index—SDI, Standardized Precipitation Index—SPI, and Evaporative Demand Drought Index—EDDI) as tools for monitoring, in identifying th...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Water (Basel) 2023-04, Vol.15 (7), p.1259
Main Authors: Gonçalves, Suellen Teixeira Nobre, Vasconcelos Júnior, Francisco das Chagas, Silveira, Cleiton da Silva, Cid, Daniel Antônio Camelo, Martins, Eduardo Sávio Passos Rodrigues, Costa, José Micael Ferreira da
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Aquatic resources
Basins
Brazil
Comparative analysis
Criteria
Dams
Decision making
Drought
Drought index
Droughts
Emergency communications systems
Environmental monitoring
Hydrology
Management
Monitoring
Precipitation
Rain
Reclamation
Reservoirs
Standardized precipitation index
Stream discharge
Stream flow
Streamflow
Surface water
Water
Water management
Water resources
Water resources management
Water shortages
Water supply
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The purpose of this work is to evaluate the applicability of five drought indices (Surface Water Supply Index—SWSI, Reclamation Drought Index—RDI, Streamflow Drought Index—SDI, Standardized Precipitation Index—SPI, and Evaporative Demand Drought Index—EDDI) as tools for monitoring, in identifying the duration, intensity, and frequency of hydrological droughts in the basins of the Banabuiú, Castanhão, and Orós reservoirs, located in the state of Ceará, Brazil. The analysis focused on determining the performance of the indexes for capturing the droughts characteristics from 2002 to 2020. Thus, the comparison of the values of the indexes with the Target Levels of the reservoir’s operation were used, as well as the analysis of six decision criteria: robustness, tractability, transparency, sophistication, extensibility, and dimensionality, to compare the behavior of drought indices. The results of the evaluation criteria showed that the SPI was superior to the other indices, being able to significantly represent the drought episodes, capturing a greater number of events. Thus, SPI received the highest total weighted score (118), followed by SWSI (97), EDDI (95), SDI (95), and RDI (88). In this context, it was found that the SPI and SWSI are the most suitable indices to monitor drought in the region and that the use of longer time scales can be recommended to manage hydrological droughts, in order to improve planning and management of water resources.
ISSN:2073-4441
2073-4441
DOI:10.3390/w15071259