Catchment-scale drought: capturing the whole  drought cycle using multiple indicators

Gibson, Abraham J.; Verdon-Kidd, Danielle C.; Hancock, Greg R.; Willgoose, Garry

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-1985-2020

Articles | Volume 24, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-1985-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-1985-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 24, issue 4

Research article

|

22 Apr 2020

Research article |

| 22 Apr 2020

Catchment-scale drought: capturing the whole drought cycle using multiple indicators

Abraham J. Gibson, Danielle C. Verdon-Kidd, Greg R. Hancock, and Garry Willgoose

Data sets

MOD13Q1 MODIS/Terra Vegetation Indices 16-Day L3 Global 250 m SIN Grid V006 K. Didan https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MOD13Q1.006

AVHRR Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) Composites Digital Object Identifier AVHRR – Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer https://doi.org/10.5066/F7707ZKN

Short summary

To be better prepared for drought, we need to be able to characterize how they begin, translate to on-ground impacts and how they end. We created a 100-year drought record for an area on the east coast of Australia and compared this with soil moisture and vegetation data. Drought reduces vegetation and soil moisture, but recovery rates are different across different catchments. Our methods can be universally applied and show the need to develop area-specific data to inform drought management.