Abstract
Abstract Investigation of the hydrological drought behaviour of the Bharathapuzha river basin of Kerala, India, on account of the meteorological drought condition of the watershed was carried out in this study with the aid of four popular drought indices. Statistical relations were established between the indices using polynomial regression models to help in predictions. A study on the decadal spatial variation of hydrological drought behaviour over the basin was also conducted. The cross-correlation study was also performed to understand the propagation of hydrological drought in the event of meteorological drought. The results reveal a slight decrease in the spatial extent of hydrological drought over time. The correlation between meteorological and hydrological drought indices was found to be more assertive at grid locations G1 and G4. According to the findings, the strongest correlation of 0.8 in the propagation of meteorological to hydrological drought was observed at a lag of 3 months over a 12 -month timescale. Run theory reveals that the river basin is subjected to hydrological drought over 54–65% of the months in the historic period. Regression analysis suggests that the cubic model outperforms the other models.
Highlights
Drought and the water crisis are two of the most pressing, costlier, and damaging issues humanity has faced in recent years (Lindsay et al 2017)
This study is conducted in the Bharathapuzha river basin, which runs along India’s Kerala-Tamilnadu border
The overall length of the river from its source to its mouth is roughly 209 km, and it drains a total area of 6,186 km2, with 71% of it falling within Kerala and the rest in TamilNadu
Summary
Drought and the water crisis are two of the most pressing, costlier, and damaging issues humanity has faced in recent years (Lindsay et al 2017). Droughts are classified according to the cause of their occurrence, with meteorological, hydrological, agricultural, and socioeconomic droughts being the most common (Mishra & Singh 2010). Hydrological droughts are significant among these categories due to the reliance of many anthropogenic activities on surface water resources (Vasiliades et al 2011). They are more noticeable than other types of droughts. According to Mishra et al (2019), hydrological droughts are significant because they directly impact the water supply system, resulting in less agricultural productivity and may lead to famine in the worst-case scenario. It’s critical to investigate the elements that influence the occurrence of hydrological droughts to appropriately handle drought-related calamities (Vidal et al 2010)
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