Title: Hydrological drought frequency analysis - a case study in South Kerala

Authors: G.S. Deepa Varghese; M.B. Joisy

Addresses: Department of Civil Engineering, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Dubai Academic City, P.O. Box 345050, Dubai, UAE ' Department of Civil Engineering, Marian Engineering College, Kazhakuttom, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala 695582, India

Abstract: Hydrological droughts refer to the shortfalls on surface or subsurface water supply like streamflow, reservoir, groundwater etc. Many people consider droughts to be a rare event, when in fact they are a normal and recurrent feature in the cycle of climatic events. Droughts in Indian peninsula seem to be primarily associated with the failure of monsoon. With climate change studies predicting even more hydrological extremes for the future, already competing demand for water resources may further aggravate. Thus, the importance of water resources aspect of drought is being increasingly recognised. In this paper, the severity of droughts in terms of the cumulative water deficiency is studied by two methods by proper identification of the threshold levels in two major basins of Kerala in the south. The streamflow for the basins are generated for a period of over two decades using the 'Thomas Fiering model'. An application of the drought frequency analysis by Yevjevich and Dracup methods is performed and presented.

Keywords: hydrological droughts; streamflow generation; Dracup; Yevjevich; Thomas Fiering model; severity.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHST.2020.110569

International Journal of Hydrology Science and Technology, 2020 Vol.10 No.6, pp.586 - 603

Received: 17 Oct 2018
Accepted: 19 Feb 2019
Published online: 26 Oct 2020 *

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