Comparison of ten notable meteorological drought indices on tracking the effect of drought on streamflow |
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| Authors: | Dimitrios Myronidis Dimitrios Fotakis Konstantinos Ioannou Konstantina Sgouropoulou |
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| Institution: | 1. School of Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greecemyronid@gmail.com;3. Institute of Plant Breeding &4. Phytogenetic Resources, Hellenic Agricultural Organization ‘Demeter’, Thessaloniki, Greece;5. Forest Research Institute, Hellenic Agricultural Organization ‘Demeter’, Thessaloniki, Greece;6. School of Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece |
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| Abstract: | ABSTRACTTen notable meteorological drought indices were compared on tracking the effect of drought on streamflow. A 730-month dataset of precipitation, temperature and evapotranspiration for 88 catchments in Oregon, USA, representing pristine conditions, was used to compute the drought indices. These indices were correlated with the monthly streamflow datasets of the minimum, maximum and mean discharge, and the discharge monthly fluctuation; it was revealed that the 3-month Z-score drought index (Z3) has the best association with the four streamflow variables. The Mann-Kendall trend detection test applied to the latter index time series mainly highlighted a downward trend in the autumn and winter drought magnitude (DM) and an upward trend in the spring and summer DM (p = 0.05). Finally, the Pettitt test indicated an abrupt decline in the annual and autumn DM, which began in 1984 and 1986, respectively. |
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| Keywords: | deciles index effective drought index (EDI) standardized precipitation index (SPI) Palmer drought severity index (PDSI) China-Z index (CZI) Z-score reconnaissance drought index (RDI) Pearson coefficient Mann-Kendall test Pettitt test |
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