Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Global Insight into Drought Characteristics and Propagation

Presentation Date
Monday, December 11, 2023 at 2:10pm - Monday, December 11, 2023 at 6:30pm
Location
MC - Poster Hall A-C - South
Authors

Author

Abstract

Droughts are costly environmental hazards that can have detrimental effects on water resources and agriculture. Precipitation deficits and warmer air temperature can lead to water shortages that propagate through the terrestrial water cycle and manifest as deficits in snow water equivalent, soil moisture, and streamflow. Our study uses multi-decadal, global datasets to gain insight into the extent to which drought characteristics (e.g., severity, persistence) and their impacts are changing in time across a variety of ecoregions and climate zones around the world. We examine different types of droughts (e.g., meteorological, snow, agricultural, hydrological) associated with deficits in various hydrologic variables (e.g., precipitation, snow, soil moisture, streamflow) and how one deficit or drought type may contribute to another. We also quantify trends and uncertainty in drought characteristics, evolution, and propagation to aid in drought prediction and mitigation approaches.

Category
Hydrology
Funding Program Area(s)