Utilization of Time-Based Meteorological Droughts to Investigate Occurrence of Streamflow Droughts

Complexities of streamflow drought analyses motivate utilization of simple, alternative methods, which can provide timely information for effective water resources management. For this purpose time-based meteorological drought characteristics, identified by SPI <Subscript>3 − month </Subscript>, SPI <Subscript>6 − month </Subscript> and SPI <Subscript> Anuual </Subscript> are investigated. A boxplot approach is used to exclude non-rainy months from the analysis. Streamflow drought characteristics are described by drought intensities, and are calculated by the threshold level method. The non-parametric Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney test is used to investigate relations between streamflow drought intensities and SPI <Subscript>3 − month </Subscript>, SPI <Subscript>6 − month </Subscript> and SPI <Subscript> Anuual </Subscript>. The study area is the Doroodzan Watershed and Reservoir in southwestern Iran, with four rain gauge and two hydrometric stations. According to the results, most of time-based SPI values show significant relations (at 5% level of significance) with streamflow drought intensities. However, the most significant relation is between SPI <Subscript> Anuual </Subscript> of Jamalbeik rain gauge station (centrally located in the study area) and drought intensities of Chamriz hydrometric station (located at the reservoir inlet). Comparison of study results with available records of documented droughts, confirms applicability of the proposed procedures. The SPI <Subscript> Anuual </Subscript> is based on one-year-ahead moving average rainfalls. Then, SPI <Subscript> Anuual </Subscript> of Jamalbeik station can be used to investigate occurrence of streamflow drought in Chamriz hydrometric station. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010