Demonstrating the utility of a drought termination framework: prospects for groundwater level recovery in England and Wales in 2018 or beyond

Abstract

During prolonged droughts, information is needed about when and how the extreme event is likely to terminate. A drought termination framework based on historical data comprising current rate and historical ensemble approaches is presented here for assessing the prospects of groundwater level recovery. The current rate approach is evaluated across all initialisation months in the historical record and provides reasonable estimates for the duration of recovery from relatively severe groundwater level deficiencies in some slowly responding boreholes. The utility of the framework is demonstrated through a near-real-time application to 30 groundwater boreholes in England and Wales from October 2017 onwards. Recovery during winter 2017/18 was considered unlikely, as some aquifers required increases in groundwater levels that have occurred seldom, if ever before, in long historical records. Data to February 2018 confirmed the success of these pre-winter outlooks. Recovery by mid- to late-2018 or beyond was more likely; slow rates of recovery by October 2017 and increasing return periods of effective rainfall required for recovery over timeframes in the summer half-year underlined the importance of winter rainfall and suggested that the historical ensemble may underestimate the duration of recovery. There was moderate confidence for a delay in recovery beyond the end of 2018 in some slowly responding Chalk boreholes in south-central and eastern England. There is considerable potential for the transferability of the drought termination framework beyond the UK wherever there are sufficient historical data. The two approaches provide limited information in distinctly different circumstances and their relevance and value may differ in space and time, suggesting their complimentary use as the most robust way to incorporate information on the prospects for groundwater level recovery into existing seasonal forecasting services, supporting decision-making by water managers during prolonged droughts.