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Droughts

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Hydrology and Lakes

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Science

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Introduction

Palmer, W.C. (1965), a noted authority in the study of droughts, has said ‘drought means various things to various people depending on their specific interest. To the farmers drought means a shortage of moisture in the root-zone of his crops. To the hydrologist it suggests below average water levels in streams, lakes, reservoirs, and the like. To the economist it means a shortage which affects the established economy’. In scientific terms, a drought can be defined as a shortage in the availability of natural waters with respect to normal for a place and time. The natural waters can be in the form of precipitation, streamflow, groundwater level, lake level or soil moisture and are termed drought variables.

The behavior of the drought variable can be studied on an annual, monthly or daily scale, i.e. over the time period that the aforesaid variables are averaged or totaled. The most commonly used time unit in drought analysis is the year followed by the month (Bonacci, 1993)...

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Authors
  1. T. C. Sharma
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© 1998 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Sharma, T.C. (1998). Droughts. In: Hydrology and Lakes. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4513-1_72

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4513-1_72

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-412-74060-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-4513-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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