On the definition of droughts

摘要: In this paper, several considerations for developing a practical, analytical definition of droughts are discussed. These include (1) selection the nature water deficit to be studied (hydrological, meteorological, or agricultural); (2) averaging period used discretize continuous time series (months, seasons, years); (3) truncation level separate from remainder (mean median); and (4) method regionalization standardization. decisions discussed in terms their impacts on various approaches drought frequency analysis. events considered composed duration, magnitude (average deficiency), severity (cumulative deficiency). An application proposed procedure is presented case analysis multiyear hydrologic droughts.