Spatio-Temporal Variability of Hydrological Drought and Trends: Implementation of Classical and Innovative Approaches

Drought is known as natural hazard having negative potential effects on water resources, economy, sustainability and energy. Hydrological drought is defined as deficiency of surface or subsurface water. Drought is insidious and potentially harmful to the environment and socio-economy, which motivates researchers to monitor and develop new strategies in order to manage possible negative effects. In this research, a detailed hydrological drought monitoring study considering spatio-temporal variability has been performed by employing Streamflow Drought Index (SDI) and mean monthly streamflow records of 36 stations for the standard time scales of 1-, 3-, 6-, 9- and 12-months in the Euphrates Basin which covers the $$\:\sim$$ 16% of Turkey is one of the most important basins in the country in care of water resources availability and hosting many production sectors and cultural heritage. Spatial distribution of drought and wet categories have been analyzed by using Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) approach. Trends in the time scales are observed by Mann-Kendall Test, Spearman’s Rho Test, Wilcoxon Test, Innovative Trend Significance Test and Sen’s Slope Estimator. Graphical Innovative Trend Analysis are employed to examine temporal trends in drought and wet periods. Results have indicated that the mild drought and wet periods are the most repetitive categories based on percentage of occurrences. Different parts of the basin seem to have experienced droughts on the different standard time scales. Decreasing trends are noted to be widespread across the basin. The findings of this research are expected to contribute a better understanding of hydrological drought dynamics in Euphrates Basin that plays critical role in water resources and the sustainability of life in the region.