Evaluation of drought regimes and impacts in the Limpopo basin

Abstract. Drought is a common phenomenon in the Limpopo River basin. In essence, droughts are long–term hydro-meteorological events affecting vast regions and causing significant non-structural damages. In the interest of riparian states' joint integrated water resources development and management of the Limpopo basin, inter regional drought severity and its impacts should be understood. The study focussed on case studies in the basin which is subdivided into four homogeneous regions owing to topographic and climate variations based on the previous work of the same authors. Using the medium range time series of the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) as an indicator of drought, for each homogeneous region monthly and annual Severity-Area-Frequency (SAF) curves and maps of probability of drought occurrence were constructed. The results indicated localized severe droughts in higher frequencies, while only moderate to severe low frequency droughts may spread over wider areas in the basin. The region-level Drought-Severity Indices can be used as indicators for planning localized interventions and drought mitigation efforts in the basin. The approach can also be used to develop improved drought indicators, to assess the relationship between drought hazard and vulnerability and to enhance the performance of methods currently used for drought forecasting. Results on the meteorological drought linkage with hydrological and vegetation or agricultural drought indices are presented as means of validation of the specific drought regimes and their localized impact in each homogeneous region. In general, this preliminary investigation reveals that the western part of the basin will face a higher risk of drought when compared to other regions of the Limpopo basin in terms of the medium-term drought. The Limpopo basin is water stressed and livelihood challenges remain at large, thus impacts of droughts and related resilience options should be taken into account in the formulation of regional sustainable water resources development strategies. This study is exciting in the manner that the variations in the sub-basin drought severities are revealed and are used to suggest the corresponding drought monitoring and management strategies. This will have an overall effect in developing a basin-wide framework for integrated drought management as well as water resources development and management, which requires cooperative efforts among the riparian countries of the Limpopo basin.