scholarly journals Review of the manuscript “Estimation of hydrological drought recovery based on GRACE water storage deficit” by Singh et al.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anonymous
2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 811-828 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Zhang ◽  
Qi Zhang ◽  
Adrian D. Werner ◽  
Xiaomang Liu

Abstract In this study, hydrological drought in the Yangtze River basin (YRB) is characterized based on Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) total water storage (TWS). An artificial neural network approach is applied to extend the GRACE TWS observations (2003–12) to a longer TWS time series (1979–2012), which is well matched (Nash–Sutcliff efficiency of 0.83) to the GRACE data. Hydrological drought is identified by water storage deficit (WSD; the shortfall in TWS from the average value) in three consecutive months. The method builds on previous research by considering potentially ineffective interdrought events and by characterizing drought recovery time from a multidecadal TWS time series. The results show that the YRB was in hydrological drought 29 times during 1979–2012, and the three subbasins of the YRB (upper, middle, and lower YRB) experienced between 21 and 28 hydrological drought events during the same period. The drought recovery time, defined as the time required for WSD to recover to average conditions, is evaluated by a simple statistical approach based on the empirical cumulative distribution function. The average drought recovery time is 3.3 months for the entire YRB and ranges from 2.3 to 3.4 months for the three subbasins. The severest YRB drought occurred during 2003–08 as a result of below-average precipitation, high temperatures, and intense human activities. The results demonstrate that GRACE data are useful for reconstructing the TWS time series for a large river basin, from which hydrological drought can be characterized, and for investigating spatial and temporal trends in water storage conditions.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alka Singh ◽  
John T. Reager ◽  
Ali Behrangi

Abstract. Drought is a natural climate extreme phenomenon that presents great challenges in forecasting and monitoring for water management purposes. Previous studies have examined the use of Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) terrestrial water storage anomalies to measure the amount of water missing from a drought-affected region, and other studies have attempted statistical approaches to drought recovery forecasting based on joint probabilities of precipitation and soil moisture. The goal of this study is to combine GRACE data with historical precipitation observations to quantify the amount of precipitation required to achieve normal storage conditions in order to estimate a likely drought recovery time. First, linear relationships between terrestrial water storage anomaly (TWSA) and cumulative precipitation anomaly are established across a range of conditions. Then, historical precipitation data are statistically modeled to develop simplistic precipitation forecast skill. Three different precipitation scenarios are simulated by using a standard deviation in climatology. Precipitation scenarios are convolved with precipitation deficit estimates to calculate best-estimate of a drought recovery period. The results show that in the regions of strong seasonal amplitude (like monsoon belt) drought continues even with the above-normal precipitation until its wet season. Historical GRACE-observed drought recovery period is used to validate the approach. Estimated drought for an example month demonstrated 80% similar recovery period as observed by the GRACE.


2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (5) ◽  
pp. 1537-1545 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alys C. Thomas ◽  
John T. Reager ◽  
James S. Famiglietti ◽  
Matthew Rodell

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 2713
Author(s):  
Yizhuang Liu ◽  
Shu-Qing Yang ◽  
Changbo Jiang ◽  
Yuannan Long ◽  
Bin Deng ◽  
...  

Dongting Lake is located at the downstream of Three Gorges Dam (TGD) and the hydrological drought is intensified after the impoundment of TGD as the dry period has been extended from 123 days/year before the operation of TGD (1981–2002) to 141 days/year (2003–2016) on average. Particularly, the Dongting Lake’s water shortage becomes very severe. To solve the problem caused by upstream dams, an innovative flood control scheme (IFCS) was introduced, and its feasibility of application in Dongting Lake is studied using the hydrodynamic module of Mike 21. The results show the IFCS can effectively convert the peak discharge of floodwater in wet seasons into water resources in dry seasons as the IFCS could significantly increase the usable water storage of the lake. For example, the usable water storage could increase to 2.85 billion m3 and 1.81 billion m3 in the extreme drought year of 2006 and 2011, respectively. The average increment of the water level would be about 0.4 m, 0.6 m, and 0.5 m in the West Dongting Lake (WDL), South Dongting Lake (SDL), and the East Dongting Lake (EDL), respectively, if the water stored in the inner lake was discharged uniformly in 30 days (27 November to 27 December 2006) with the application of IFCS. This study may provide an innovative method to alleviate the water shortage problem in Dongting Lake and other similar lakes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 511-526
Author(s):  
Alka Singh ◽  
John Thomas Reager ◽  
Ali Behrangi

Abstract. Drought is a natural extreme climate phenomenon that presents great challenges in forecasting and monitoring for water management purposes. Previous studies have examined the use of Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) terrestrial water storage anomalies to measure the amount of water missing from a drought-affected region, and other studies have attempted statistical approaches to drought recovery forecasting based on joint probabilities of precipitation and soil moisture. The goal of this study is to combine GRACE data and historical precipitation observations to quantify the amount of precipitation required to achieve normal storage conditions in order to estimate a likely drought recovery time. First, linear relationships between terrestrial water storage anomaly (TWSA) and cumulative precipitation anomaly are established across a range of conditions. Then, historical precipitation data are statistically modeled to develop simplistic precipitation forecast skill based on climatology and long-term trend. Two additional precipitation scenarios are simulated to predict the recovery period by using a standard deviation in climatology and long-term trend. Precipitation scenarios are convolved with water deficit estimates (from GRACE) to calculate the best estimate of a drought recovery period. The results show that, in the regions of strong seasonal amplitude (like a monsoon belt), drought continues even with above-normal precipitation until its wet season. The historical GRACE-observed drought recovery period is used to validate the approach. Estimated drought for an example month demonstrated an 80 % recovery period, as observed by the GRACE.


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