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| Titel |
Drought severity–duration–frequency curves: a foundation for risk assessment and planning tool for ecosystem establishment in post-mining landscapes |
| VerfasserIn |
D. Halwatura, A. M. Lechner, S. Arnold |
| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| ISSN |
1027-5606
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| Digitales Dokument |
URL |
| Erschienen |
In: Hydrology and Earth System Sciences ; 19, no. 2 ; Nr. 19, no. 2 (2015-02-26), S.1069-1091 |
| Datensatznummer |
250120639
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 copernicus.org/hess-19-1069-2015.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
Eastern Australia has considerable mineral and energy resources, with areas of
high biodiversity value co-occurring over a broad range of agro-climatic
environments. Lack of water is the primary abiotic stressor for
(agro)ecosystems in many parts of eastern Australia. In the context of mined
land rehabilitation quantifying the severity–duration–frequency (SDF) of
droughts is crucial for successful ecosystem rehabilitation to overcome
challenges of early vegetation establishment and long-term ecosystem resilience.
The objective of this study was to quantify the SDF of short-term and
long-term drought events of 11 selected locations across a broad range of
agro-climatic environments in eastern Australia by using three drought
indices at different timescales: the Standardized Precipitation Index
(SPI), the Reconnaissance Drought Index (RDI), and the Standardized
Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI). Based on the indices we
derived bivariate distribution functions of drought severity and duration,
and estimated the recurrence intervals of drought events at different timescales. The correlation between the simple SPI and the more complex SPEI or
RDI was stronger for the tropical and temperate locations than for the arid
locations, indicating that SPEI or RDI can be replaced by SPI if evaporation
plays a minor role for plant available water (tropics). Both short-term and
long-term droughts were most severe and prolonged, and recurred most
frequently in arid regions, but were relatively rare in tropical and
temperate regions.
Our approach is similar to intensity–duration–frequency (IDF) analyses of
rainfall, which are crucial for the design of hydraulic infrastructure. In
this regard, we propose to apply SDF analyses of droughts to design
ecosystem components in post-mining landscapes. Together with design
rainfalls, design droughts should be used to assess rehabilitation
strategies and ecological management using drought recurrence intervals,
thereby minimising the risk of failure of initial ecosystem establishment
due to ignorance of fundamental abiotic and site-specific environmental
barriers, such as flood and drought events. |
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