Arid regions
; Biodiversity
; Design
; Distribution functions
; Drought
; Ecology
; Energy resources
; Environmental design
; Evapotranspiration
; Mineral resources
; Plants (botany)
; Rain
; Risk assessment
; Tropics
; Bivariate distribution
; Ecological managements
; Ecosystem resilience
; Intensity duration frequencies
; Reconnaissance drought indices
; Rehabilitation strategy
; Standardized precipitation index
; Vegetation establishments
; Ecosystems
; agricultural ecosystem
; biodiversity
; drought
; ecosystem resilience
; energy resource
; evapotranspiration
; flood
; landscape
; risk assessment
; timescale
; Australia
英文摘要:
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.
Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation, Sustainable Minerals Institute, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia; Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining, Sustainable Minerals Institute, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia; Centre for Environment, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia
Recommended Citation:
Halwatura D,, Lechner A,M,et al. Drought severity-duration-frequency curves: A foundation for risk assessment and planning tool for ecosystem establishment in post-mining landscapes[J]. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences,2015-01-01,19(2)