Meteorological and hydrological drought analysis and its impact on water quality and stream integrity

TY - JOUR

T1 - Meteorological and hydrological drought analysis and its impact on water quality and stream integrity

AU - Giri, Subhasis

AU - Mishra, Ashok

AU - Zhang, Zhen

AU - Lathrop, Richard G.

AU - Alnahit, Ali O.

N1 - Funding Information: Funding: This research was supported by the Johnson Family Chair in Water Resources & Water‐ shed Ecology and the Sustainable Raritan River Initiative at Rutgers University. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

PY - 2021/8/1

Y1 - 2021/8/1

N2 - Rising temperature and shifting precipitation patterns due to climate change are likely to intensify droughts throughout the world. Understanding the drought characteristics of possible future scenarios under climate change requires verification of past drought events using appropriate drought indices. Consequently, this study investigates the application of two widely used drought indices, the standardized precipitation index (SPI) and standardized streamflow index (SSI), to characterize historical droughts, drought trends, and their impact on water quality and stream integrity for a selected study basin in New Jersey. Results indicated that both SPI and SSI were able to identify historical drought events, including three drought emergency periods and the most recent drought-watch periods. A significant positive meteorological drought was observed at the western side of the basin, whilst a significant positive hydrological drought was found in the eastern side. The average pollutant concentration of drought periods were lesser than non-drought periods due to reduction of different processes, such as erosion and transport of sediment and nutrients into rivers and streams, during drought periods as opposed to non-drought periods. The findings from this study will serve to bolster the ongoing efforts to formulate better drought management strategies for future climate change in the Raritan Basin.

AB - Rising temperature and shifting precipitation patterns due to climate change are likely to intensify droughts throughout the world. Understanding the drought characteristics of possible future scenarios under climate change requires verification of past drought events using appropriate drought indices. Consequently, this study investigates the application of two widely used drought indices, the standardized precipitation index (SPI) and standardized streamflow index (SSI), to characterize historical droughts, drought trends, and their impact on water quality and stream integrity for a selected study basin in New Jersey. Results indicated that both SPI and SSI were able to identify historical drought events, including three drought emergency periods and the most recent drought-watch periods. A significant positive meteorological drought was observed at the western side of the basin, whilst a significant positive hydrological drought was found in the eastern side. The average pollutant concentration of drought periods were lesser than non-drought periods due to reduction of different processes, such as erosion and transport of sediment and nutrients into rivers and streams, during drought periods as opposed to non-drought periods. The findings from this study will serve to bolster the ongoing efforts to formulate better drought management strategies for future climate change in the Raritan Basin.

KW - Drought severity

KW - Mann–Kendall test

KW - Sen’s slope

KW - Standardized precipitation index

KW - Standardized streamflow index

KW - Stream integrity

KW - Water quality

KW - Welch’s test

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U2 - https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158175

DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158175

M3 - Article

SN - 2071-1050

VL - 13

JO - Sustainability (Switzerland)

JF - Sustainability (Switzerland)

IS - 15

M1 - 8175

ER -