Abstract
The hydrological drought life-cycle begins at the onset and includes intensification and recovery stages. Previous studies have mainly considered each stage separately, so a comprehensive life-cycle pattern analysis is lacking. Moreover, differences in hydrological drought life-cycle patterns across different climatic basins still need in-depth research. This study proposed an integrated framework for analyzing the life-cycle patterns of hydrological droughts and used it to compare semi-arid and humid basins of China. The empirical analysis involved long-term (≥30 years) monthly runoff and precipitation data from six basins—three in semi-arid and three in humid zones of China. We identified the onset thresholds of hydrological drought events from the response relationship of hydrological drought to meteorological drought, considering both duration and severity thresholds. Then, using the “time–speed” process relationship, the intensification and recovery stages of hydrological drought events were quantified. Finally, the life-cycle patterns of hydrological drought in humid and semi-arid basins of China were compared. The results indicated that: (1) the proposed integrated framework, utilizing life-cycle analysis techniques to investigate the onset thresholds, intensification, and recovery of hydrological drought, provided valuable insights into their differences across different climatic basins; (2) compared to the semi-arid basins of northern China, the humid basins exhibited lower onset thresholds, slower intensification, and quicker recovery. This indicated that, in the humid basins of southern China, the onset thresholds for hydrological drought are reached rapidly after meteorological drought, followed by more gradual intensification and faster recovery stages. This underscored the importance of recognizing the distinctive life-cycle patterns of hydrological drought in different climatic zones so that tailored strategies for effective drought prevention and mitigation can be devised
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