A review of water scarcity and drought indexes in water resources planning and management

Summary Water represents an essential element for the life of all who inhabit our planet. But the random nature of this resource, which is manifested by the alternation of wet periods and dry periods, makes it even more precious. Whatever the approach (water planning, water management, drought, economy), in order to maximise the profit produced by the allocation of water it is necessary an understanding of the relationships between physical variables as precipitation, temperatures, streamflows, reservoir volumes, piezometric levels, water demands and infrastructures management. This paper attends to provide a review of fundamental water scarcity and drought indexes that enables to assess the status of a water exploitation system. With the aim of a better water management and governance under water scarcity conditions., this paper also presents a classification of indexes to help decision makers and stakeholders to select the most appropriate indexes, taking as the starting point the objectives of the analysis and the river basin features.

[1]  M. Lenzen,et al.  Water accounting in Australia , 2007 .

[2]  A. Hoekstra,et al.  Globalization of Water: Sharing the Planet's Freshwater Resources , 2008 .

[3]  Lien Poelmans,et al.  A System-based Paradigm of Drought Analysis for Operational Management , 2013, Water Resources Management.

[4]  C. Sullivan.  Calculating a Water Poverty Index , 2002 .

[5]  T. Doctoral.  ESCUELA TÉCNICA SUPERIOR DE INGENIEROS DE CAMINOS, CANALES Y PUERTOS , 2006 .

[6]  J. A. Schell,et al.  Monitoring the Vernal Advancement and Retrogradation (Green Wave Effect) of Natural Vegetation. [Great Plains Corridor] , 1973 .

[7]  Wayne C. Palmer,et al.  Keeping Track of Crop Moisture Conditions, Nationwide: The New Crop Moisture Index , 1968 .

[8]  J. Paz,et al.  La huella hídrica total de una cuenca: el caso de la demarcación hidrográfica del segura. , 2013 .

[9]  H. Gan,et al.  The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting for Water: Development, Implementation and Use , 2012 .

[10]  Sergio M. Vicente-Serrano,et al.  A multi-scalar drought index sensitive to global warming: The Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index - SPEI , 2009 .

[11]  Bruce Potter.  OT&E Networks: From concept to production , 2007 .

[12]  H. Savenije,et al.  A simple approach to assess water scarcity integrating water quantity and quality , 2013 .

[13]  Peter H. Gleick,et al.  Water Footprint Outcomes and Policy Relevance Change with Scale Considered: Evidence from California , 2014, Water Resources Management.

[14]  Ana Iglesias,et al.  Diagnosing Causes of Water Scarcity in Complex Water Resources Systems and Identifying Risk Management Actions , 2013, Water Resources Management.

[15]  D. Vanham,et al.  A review on the indicator water footprint for the EU28 , 2013 .

[16]  A. Hoekstra.  Human appropriation of natural capital: A comparison of ecological footprint and water footprint analysis , 2009 .

[17]  Arjen Ysbert Hoekstra,et al.  Assessing water footprint at river basin level: a case study for the Heihe River Basin in northwest China , 2012 .

[18]  M Falkenmark,et al.  Macro-scale water scarcity requires micro-scale approaches. Aspects of vulnerability in semi-arid development. , 1989, Natural resources forum.

[19]  The RDI as a composite climatic index , 2013 .

[20]  Radhika Vidanage De Silva,et al.  World water demand and supply, 1990 to 2025: scenarios and issues , 1998 .

[21]  Juan M. Solano.  Fundación Marcelino Botín , 2001 .

[22]  Steven M. Quiring,et al.  Developing Objective Operational Definitions for Monitoring Drought , 2009 .

[23]  Ramaswamy Sakthivadivel,et al.  Water Accounting to Assess Use and Productivity of Water , 1999 .

[24]  Frank R. Rijsberman,et al.  Water scarcity: Fact or fiction? , 2006 .

[25]  D. Ruelland,et al.  Modeling the current and future capacity of water resources to meet water demands in the Ebro basin , 2013 .

[26]  T. McKee,et al.  THE RELATIONSHIP OF DROUGHT FREQUENCY AND DURATION TO TIME SCALES , 1993 .

[27]  P. Philipon.  Les ressources en eau , 1997 .

[28]  H.A.J. van Lanen,et al.  Making the distinction between water scarcity and drought using an observation‐modeling framework , 2013 .

[29]  V. Singh,et al.  A review of drought concepts , 2010 .

[30]  Benjamin Lloyd-Hughes,et al.  The impracticality of a universal drought definition , 2014, Theoretical and Applied Climatology.

[31]  Peter H. Gleick,et al.  Comprehensive Assessment of the Freshwater Resources of the World , 1997 .

[32]  A. Solera,et al.  Methodology for Drought Risk Assessment in Within-year Regulated Reservoir Systems. Application to the Orbigo River System (Spain) , 2014, Water Resources Management.

[33]  Roberto Rodriguez,et al.  La huella hidrológica de la agricultura española , 2009 .

[34]  Daniel P. Loucks,et al.  Reliability, resiliency, and vulnerability criteria for water resource system performance evaluation , 1982 .

[35]  M. Aldaya,et al.  Incorporating the Water Footprint and Virtual Water into Policy: Reflections from the Mancha Occidental Region, Spain , 2010 .

[36]  B. Shafer,et al.  Development of a surface water supply index (SWSI) to assess the severity of drought conditions in snowpack runoff areas , 1982 .

[37]  Keryn Chalmers,et al.  Water Accounting: International Approaches to Policy and Decision-making , 2012 .

[38]  D. Loucks.  Quantifying trends in system sustainability , 1997 .

[39]  S. Vicente‐Serrano,et al.  A Multiscalar Drought Index Sensitive to Global Warming: The Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index , 2009 .

[40]  Daniel P. Loucks,et al.  Sustainability Index for Water Resources Planning and Management , 2011 .

[41]  T. Estrela,et al.  Drought Management Plans in the European Union. The Case of Spain , 2012, Water Resources Management.

[42]  J McGlade,et al.  The European Environment: State and Outlook 2005 , 2005 .

[43]  M. Pedro-Monzonís,et al.  Key issues for determining the exploitable water resources in a Mediterranean river basin. , 2015, The Science of the total environment.

[44]  J. A. Allan,et al.  Virtual Water: A Strategic Resource Global Solutions to Regional Deficits , 1998 .

[45]  M. Llamas,et al.  Incorporating the water footprint and virtual water into policy: reflections from the Doñana Region, Spain , 2010 .