Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/932930
- Title
- Quantifying drought risk in a nonstationary climate
- Author/Creator
-
Verdon-Kidd, Danielle C.;
Kiem, Anthony S.
- Institution
- The University of Newcastle. Faculty of Science & Information Technology, School of Environmental and Life Sciences
- Description
- Water management in Australia has traditionally been carried out on the assumption that the historical record of rainfall, evaporation, streamflow, and recharge is representative of current and future climatic conditions. However, in many circumstances, this does not adequately address the potential risks to supply security for towns, industry, irrigators, and the environment. This is because the Australian climate varies markedly due to natural cycles that operate over periods of several years to several decades. There is also serious concern about how anthropogenic climate change may exacerbate drought risk in the future. In this paper, the frequency and severity of droughts are analyzed during a range of ‘‘climate states’’ (e.g., different phases of the Pacific, Indian, and/or Southern Oceans) to demonstrate that drought risk varies markedly over interannual through to multidecadal time scales. Importantly, by accounting for climate variability and change on multitemporal scales (e.g., interdecadal, multidecadal, and the palaeo scale), it is demonstrated that the risk of failure of current drought management practices may be better assessed and more robust climate adaptation responses developed.
- Relation
- Journal of Hydrometeorology Vol. 11, Issue 4, p. 1019-1031
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/2010jhm1215.1
- Date
- 2010
- Publisher
- American Meteorological Society
- Keyword(s)
-
water management;
climate variability;
drought management;
drought risk
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/932930
- Identifier
- ISSN:1525-755X
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