Searching for the optimal drought index and timescale combination to detect drought: a case study from the lower Jinsha River basin, China

摘要

Drought indices based on precipitation are commonly used to identify and characterize droughts. Due to the general complexity of droughts, the comparison of index-identified events with droughts at different levels of the complete system, including soil humidity or river discharges, relies typically on model simulations of the latter, entailing potentially significant uncertainties.