Identification of Hydrological Droughts in Lithuanian Rivers

Abstract

Globally, hydrological droughts are most commonly identified based on various indices calculated from water flow values. However, the water flow rate is calculated from a flow rate curve that needs to be updated constantly, so it takes a long time to resolve its true value. For this reason, the possibility of identifying a hydrological drought on the basis of hourly and prompt treated water levels seems much more attractive. 8 water gauging stations (WGS) operating along 7 important rivers and covering the hydrological areas of visas in the Lithuanian region were selected for the study. In this study, a modified SPI function of the R programming language SPEI package (traditionally used to calculate the standardized precipitation index, SPI) was applied for the streamflow drought index (SDI) calculations. Given how it was applied to the SDI calculation, just like the baseline data, this was the ten-day mean water flow and then the water level. The suitability of water level data for SDI calculations was assessed by analyzing the relationships between SWLI (Standartized Water Level Index) calculated from water level data and SDI calculated from water flow information. SWLI and SDI in all 8 WGS are closely interconnected. It was found that the possibility of recurrence of droughts of different severity identified by both methods is significantly influenced by the profile of the river bed in a specific section. In areas where riverbanks have steeper slopes, the SWLI and SDI similarly describes the water situation and the recurrence of droughts. It is believed that a modified SDI methodology (SWLI), which is based on water level data, may become a good alternative in our country for identifying hydrological droughts. Keywords: Lithuanian rivers, hydrological drought, identification of droughts, water level, SDI, SWLI.