Assessment of drought characteristics for Dhasan basin in Bundelkhand region

Abstract

Drought monitoring is an important aspect for assessing and forecasting the drought risk for an area. The various types of drought including the meteorological drought and groundwater drought have been analysed using the appropriate drought indicators for Dhasan basin. This has helped in understanding the spatio-temporal variation of droughts including duration, severity and also helped to capture the progression and withdrawal of droughts during various months of the identified drought years. Based on the Effective Drought Index (EDI), four major drought events have been identified during 1981-82, 1988-89, 2002-03 and 2007-08. The drought severity assessment based on the EDI, indicates that the maximum drought severity of -33.49 had occurred during September 2006 and May 2008 and it was of longest duration (21 months) in the area under Banda rain gauging station. An increasing trend of meteorological drought severity has been observed for all the rain gauging stations in Dhasan basin. Hydrological drought characteristics have been evaluated using Groundwater Drought Index (GDI), which indicates that the groundwater drought severity is increasing gradually in the study area. During August 2002, about 0.78 sq. km. area was under severe drought whereas, during November 2002 about 46.01 sq. km. of the area was under severe drought and only 0.62 sq. km. area was under extreme drought conditions. Highlights • Meteorological drought characteristics have been evaluated using Effective Drought Index (EDI) indicates an increasing trend in drought severity for Dhasan basin with maximum severity of -33.49 occurred during 2006 to 2008. • Spatial and temporal distributions of meteorological drought have also been studied. • Ground water drought characteristics have also been assessed using Groundwater Drought Index (GDI) to study the hydrological drought situation in the basin area.