Multi-year drought frequency analysis at multiple sites by operational hydrology - A comparison of methods

This paper compares two generators of yearly water availabilities from sources located at multiple sites with regard to their ability to reproduce the characteristics of historical critical periods and to provide reliable results in terms of the return period of critical sequences of different length. The two models are a novel multi-site Markov mixture model explicitly accounting for drought occurrences and a multivariate ARMA. In the case of the multisite Markov mixture model parameter estimation is limited to a search in the parameter space guided by the value of parameter λ to show the sensitivity of the model to this parameter. Application to two of the longest time series of streamflows available in Sicily (Italy) shows that the models can provide quite different results in terms of estimated return periods of historic droughts, although they seem to perform more uniformly when it comes to simulate drought-related statistics such as drought length, severity and intensity. The role of parameter selection for the multisite Markov mixture model and of the marginal probability of generated flows in providing results consistent with the characteristics of the observed series is discussed. Both models are applied to the system of sources supplying the city of Palermo (Sicily) and its environs showing the applicability of the newly developed multisite Markov mixture model to medium-to-large scale water resources systems.     

江苏省近百年汛期旱涝变化的诊断分析

本文应用历史气候资料和现代降水记录,对近百年来汛期江苏省各区域各年代进行旱涝诊断分析,采用滑动平均方法探讨其变化趋势,并用最大搞谱方法提取显著周期。得出以下三个比较有意义的结论：（1）近百年来,汛期全省较易发生旱的灾害,20－30年代为旱灾濒发期;（2）淮北地区近年有向早年发展的趋势,江淮之间及苏南地区进入90年代以来向旱年发展的趋势则愈来愈明显;（3）全省具有2－3年、5－6年的旱涝周期。     

华北汛期旱涝与中高纬大气环流异常

利用１９８０￣１９９４年ＮＣＥＰ／ＮＣＡＲ月平均高度场和我国测站降水量资料,通过奇异值分解方法探讨了华北汛期降水与５００,２００ｈＰａ欧亚吭纬大气环流这关系,得到与华北汛期旱涝有关的两类异常环流型。     

Drought characterization: a probabilistic approach

Using the alternative renewable process and run theory, this study investigates the distribution of drought interval time, mean drought interarrival time, joint probability density function and transition probabilities of drought events in the Kansabati River basin in India. The standardized precipitation index series is employed in the investigation. The time interval of SPI is found to have a significant effect of the probabilistic characteristics of drought.     

Indian summer monsoon and El Nino

The associations between strong to moderate El Nino events and the all-India and subdivisional summer monsoon rainfall is examined for the period 1871 to 1978. The significance of the association is assessed by applying the Chi-square test to the contingency table. The analysis indicates that during 22 El Nino years the Indian monsoon rainfall was mostly below normal over most parts of the country. However, the association between El Nino and deficient rainfall or drought is statistically significant over the subdivisions west of longitude 80°E and north of 12°N. During the five strong El Nino years—1877, 1899, 1911, 1918, and 1972—many areas of India suffered large rainfall deficiencies and severe droughts. There are four moderate El Nino years—1887, 1914, 1953, and 1976—when the suffering was marginal. The relationship between El Nino and the Indian monsoon rainfall is expected to be useful in forecasting large-scale anomalies in the monsoon over India.     

热带副热带高度异常对长江流域和华北旱涝影响的数值模拟与分析

前期南亚高压的异常增强或者减弱,热带、副热带地区100 hPa高度的异常增高或者降低,热带西风的异常增强或者减弱,对长江流域和华北地区夏季的降水异常具有预示作用。文中设计了一系列的数值试验进行模拟研究,包括控制试验、敏感试验和4组合成试验。合成试验模拟结果表明,前期热带、副热带高度异常分布,能够再现长江流域、华北旱涝情况。前期南亚高压、热带、副热带高度、风异常对长江流域和华北地区夏季降水的异常均有预示作用。100 hPa叠加高度、风异常的敏感试验结果表明:前期南亚高压、热带与副热带地区100 hPa高度场和环流场的异常不仅可以预示、事实上能够引起长江流域和华北夏季降水的异常———前期南亚高压异常增强、热带、副热带地区100 hPa高度场异常增高、西风异常增强,易引起长江流域降水偏多、华北降水偏少;反之,则容易引起长江流域降水偏少、华北降水偏多。     

距平模式月际旱涝异常的诊断及预测试验

用地气耦合非定常距平模式对２４个夏季旱涝月个例进行了诊断和预测试验。结果表明,用这种动力与统计外部结合的ＭＯＳ方法进行旱涝预测比较简易可行,并且达到一定的准确率,便于在短期气候预报的业务中推广应用。     

Global warming threat on water resources and environment: a review

Global warming, greenhouse effect, and the climate change problems are long-term anthropogenic consequences that are expected to threaten water related demand and supply patterns in the near future. These problems may be identified linguistically on a logical basis to take the necessary precautions, and implement mitigation strategies after vulnerability possibilities are assessed using fuzzy logic. Climate change effects are the focus of many scientific, engineering, economic, social, cultural, and global nuisances, and these effects awaits cost-effective remedial solutions. Extreme events such as floods and droughts and modified groundwater recharge may be influenced by climate change.     

500 Years of rainfall variability and extreme hydrological events in southeastern Spain drylands

The semiarid SE fringe of the Iberian Peninsula is considered one of the most sensitive to extreme floods and droughts in the western Mediterranean area. The controlling climatic mechanisms are nevertheless difficult to predict and model. A combined documentary-sedimentary-instrumental 500 years comprehensive register of climatic data (rainfall and flooding) was collated for analysing the decadal to centennial scale hydrological response. Wet years are closely linked to the presence of autumn (SON) positive anomalies (e.g. early 18th century). However, continuous, decadal wet periods seem to correspond in time to both autumn and spring (MAM) positive rainfall anomaly years (e.g. 1570/90, 1830/40, 1870/1900). High frequencies of large floods were registered during the late Medieval Warm Period (AD 950–1200), and during some decades of the Little Ice Age with an average of 0.22 floods/year (1440–1490, 1520–1570, 1600–1740, 1770–1800, 1820–1840, 1870–1900), but flood frequency decreased in the 20th Century (1945–1973; 0.14 floods/year). During wet phases (e.g. late 19th century), large floods occurred during all seasons, whereas a predominantly autumn extreme flooding (>70%) is linked to a rainfall patterns with higher inter-annual variability (e.g. 1945–1973). The recurrence of dry phases is higher since early 17th century, and the frequency of continuous wetter phases lower than the ones with marked annual variability. This results in a trend with less frequent high magnitude catastrophic floods. This study confirms a shift from autumn rainfall maxima towards winter since the early 1990's. The tendency towards longer dry periods and increased inter-annual variability (with 1–3 years maximum wet spells) and a changing seasonal rainfall distribution are thought to be key in modelling projections for this specific arid Mediterranean region.