Analysis of hydrological drought indices in Alpine Zagros Mountains of Iran

The propagation of climatological drought to water cycle components, including soil moisture, surface, and groundwater resources, was investigated in upper Dez basin, southwestern Iran. Standardized precipitation index (SPI), standardized stream discharge index (SQI), standardized surface runoff ind...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Arabian journal of geosciences 2023, Vol.16 (11), Article 594
Main Authors: Porhemmat, Jahangir, Altafi Dadgar, Majid
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Base flow
Correlation coefficient
Correlation coefficients
Drought
Drought index
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth science
Earth Sciences
Flow index
Groundwater
Groundwater depletion
Groundwater levels
Groundwater table
Hydrologic cycle
Hydrological cycle
Hydrology
Moisture index
Mountains
Original Paper
Propagation
Seasonal depletion
Soil
Soil depth
Soil moisture
Soil water
Standardized precipitation index
Stream discharge
Surface runoff
Time
Water resources
Water table
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 propagation of climatological drought to water cycle components, including soil moisture, surface, and groundwater resources, was investigated in upper Dez basin, southwestern Iran. Standardized precipitation index (SPI), standardized stream discharge index (SQI), standardized surface runoff index (SRI), standardized base flow index (SBFI), standardized groundwater level index (SGI), and standardized soil moisture index (SRI) were calculated for different time scales: 1-, 3-, 6-, 12-, 18- and 24-month. The correlation coefficient was used to analyze the relationship between indices. The results indicated that (1) comparing meteorological drought to hydrological drought showed the SQI correlated better with SPI than SBFI and SRI. The SRI and SPI correlated better when both indices had the same time scales, which emphasized that SRI can show the propagation of meteorological drought earlier than SQI and SBFI with a correlation coefficient (cc) equal to 0.74. (2) Correlation between the SPI and SGI resulted in the maximum correlation coefficient for SPI-24 and SGI-03 (maximum correlation coefficient (MCC) =0.63). This result revealed that seasonal depletion in groundwater table correlated stronger with more prolonged meteorological drought. (3) SGI showed stronger correlation than SBFI for considering groundwater drought. (4) Correlation between SPI and SSI showed a more substantial relation as the time scale was lengthened, and at deeper soil depths, CC tended to be constant. (5) Each drought index explains a part of drought and applying an individual index cannot describe the drought propagation well. The development of a method that can combine drought indices as an optimal one is recommended for the future.
ISSN:1866-7511
1866-7538
DOI:10.1007/s12517-023-11666-w