Analysis of drought progression physiognomies in South Africa

dc.contributor.authorBotai, Joel Ongego
dc.contributor.authorBotai, Christina M.
dc.contributor.authorDe Wit, Jaco P.
dc.contributor.authorMuthoni, Masinde
dc.contributor.authorAdeola, Abiodun Morakinyo
dc.date.accessioned2019-06-14T10:45:29Z
dc.date.available2019-06-14T10:45:29Z
dc.date.issued2019-02-11
dc.descriptionThis study was carried out as part of the program of action spelt in the joint research collaboration between the South African Weather Service and the Central University of Technology, Free State, South Africa.en_ZA
dc.description.abstractThe spatial-temporal variability of drought characteristics and propagation mechanisms in the hydrological cycle is a pertinent topic to policymakers and to the diverse scientific community. This study reports on the analysis of drought characteristics and propagation patterns in the hydrological cycle over South Africa. In particular, the analysis considered daily precipitation and streamflow data spanning from 1985 to 2016, recorded from 74 weather stations, distributed across South Africa and covering the country’s 19 Water Management Areas (WMAs). The results show that all the WMAs experience drought features characterized by an inherent spatial-temporal dependence structure with transition periods categorized into short (1–3 months), intermediate (4–6 months), long (7–12 months) and extended (>12 months) time-scales. Coupled with climate and catchment characteristics, the drought propagation characteristics delineate the WMAs into homogenous zones subtly akin to the broader climatic zones of South Africa, i.e., Savanna, Grassland, Karoo, Fynbos, Forest, and Desert climates. We posit that drought evolution results emanating from the current study provide a new perspective of drought characterization with practical use for the design of drought monitoring, as well as early warning systems for drought hazard preparedness and effective water resources planning and management. Overall, the analysis of drought evolution in South Africa is expected to stimulate advanced drought research topics, including the elusive drought termination typology.en_ZA
dc.description.departmentGeography, Geoinformatics and Meteorologyen_ZA
dc.description.departmentSchool of Health Systems and Public Health (SHSPH)en_ZA
dc.description.librarianam2019en_ZA
dc.description.sponsorshipThis research was partly funded by the Water Research Commission project, grant number [K5/2309].en_ZA
dc.description.urihttp://www.mdpi.com/journal/wateren_ZA
dc.identifier.citationBotai, J.O., Botai, C.M., De Wit, J.P. et al. 2019, 'Analysis of drought progression physiognomies in South Africa', Water (Switzerland), vol. 11, no. 2, art. 299, pp. 1-21.en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn2073-4441 (online)
dc.identifier.other10.3390/w11020299
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/70218
dc.language.isoenen_ZA
dc.publisherMDPI Publishingen_ZA
dc.rights© 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.en_ZA
dc.subjectDrought propagation physiognomiesen_ZA
dc.subjectHydrological droughten_ZA
dc.subjectClusteringen_ZA
dc.subjectDrought terminationen_ZA
dc.subjectWater resources planningen_ZA
dc.subjectWater resources managementen_ZA
dc.subjectPropagation mechanismen_ZA
dc.subjectPropagation characteristicsen_ZA
dc.subjectEarly warning systemen_ZA
dc.subjectDrought characteristicsen_ZA
dc.subjectCatchmentsen_ZA
dc.titleAnalysis of drought progression physiognomies in South Africaen_ZA
dc.typeArticleen_ZA

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