ABSTRACT

There is a desire in Spain for the development of indicators to identify ongoing droughts. Drought characterization, that is, the understanding of the relationship between the duration, severity, and frequency of droughts, and the analysis of how a drought propagates through the hydrological cycle are prerequisites for mitigation strategies to alleviate drought impacts. Return periods have been intensively used in hydrology and their theoretical basis is accessible and ready for implementation in drought characterization. On the other hand, models are capable of estimating several hydrological variables, such as soil water content, direct runoff, and aquifer recharge and discharge over large areas. This facilitates the analysis of drought propagation. The authors describe an exercise in drought characterization in Spain with regard to the previous comments.*