A review of water scarcity and drought indexes in water resources planning and management

Abstract

Summary Water represents an essential element for the life of all who inhabit our planet. But the random nature of this resource, which is manifested by the alternation of wet periods and dry periods, makes it even more precious. Whatever the approach (water planning, water management, drought, economy), in order to maximise the profit produced by the allocation of water it is necessary an understanding of the relationships between physical variables as precipitation, temperatures, streamflows, reservoir volumes, piezometric levels, water demands and infrastructures management. This paper attends to provide a review of fundamental water scarcity and drought indexes that enables to assess the status of a water exploitation system. With the aim of a better water management and governance under water scarcity conditions., this paper also presents a classification of indexes to help decision makers and stakeholders to select the most appropriate indexes, taking as the starting point the objectives of the analysis and the river basin features.