Information gained from drought analysis can serve as the basis for water resources planning and management under the prevailing climate change condition especially at the basin scale. The aim of this work is to apply two meteorological drought indices-Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) and a hydrological drought index-Standardized Runoff Index (SRI) to investigate the occurrence of drought in the Niger-South Basin (NSB), a sub-catchment of the Niger River Basin in Nigeria, during the period 1970-2008. The results showed that the period between 1970 and 1981 was dominated by wet conditions; second, from 1982 to 1998, a period of droughts ranging from moderate dry to extreme dry alternated with moderate wet conditions, while the third period beginning from 1999 to 2008 displayed another round of severe droughts sparingly intercepted by occasional moderate wet conditions. High correlation values of between 0.66 (at 3-month scale) and 0.56 (at 12-month scale) show comparativeness in the performance of the two drought indices. For the hydrological drought, a severe drought was observed in 1982 and near normal and moderately wet since 1997. The higher agreement between the SRI and SPEI, suggests that hydrological droughts are more affected by temperature (warming) than precipitation (drying) in the basin. Further analysis of the frequency of the various conditions shows that it has been more of near normal conditions (> 60%), while extremely dry and wet conditions (2% each) have been very rare. However, given the projected global warming conditions, a reversal of the present normal condition might be witnessed in the nearest future, hence, the results of this study can serve as a basis for effective water resources planning and management in the basin.
Diversion flows from rivers or main channels affect bed morphology and cause erosion and sedimentation at the diversion channel junction. In a diversion channel flow system, the scour depth and scour length are considered important parameters and should be taken into account during the project construction stage because it affect the stability of main channel banks and crossing structures. In this study, the scour depth produced by diversion flow in a main channel was investigated using a physical sand bed model. The investigations considered five diversion angles (30°, 45°, 60°, 75°, and 90°), three bed width ratios (29%, 38%, and 48%), and five total discharges (7.25, 8.5, 9.75, 11, and 12.25 L/s). Results indicated that the scour depth in the main channel reduced as the diversion angle reduced. Empirical relationship to demonstrate relative scour depth (Kds) for different diversion angles and bed width ratios was proposed. Relative scour depth can be defined as a relative scour depth in case of a diversion angle of θ°to that with 90°for the same flow condition and bed width ratio. Empirical relationships to estimate the scour depth and scour length with the governing hydraulic parameters were also established with a good accuracy. Testing the proposed relationships gave reasonable mean errors of 3.46% and 10.3% in predicting scour depth and scour length, respectively.
The present research was carried out to study drought and its effects upon water resources using remote sensing data. To this end, the tropical rainfall measuring mission (TRMM) satellite precipitation, the synoptic stations, and fountain discharge data were employed. For monitoring of drought in the study area, in Kermanshah province, Iran, the monthly precipitation data of the synoptic stations along with TRMM satellite precipitation datasets were collected and processed in the geographic information system (GIS) environment. Statistical indicators were applied to evaluate the accuracy of TRMM precipitation against the meteorological stations’ data. Standardized precipitation index, SPI, and normalized fountain discharge were used in the monitoring of drought conditions, and fountains discharge, respectively. The fountains were selected so that in addition to enjoying the most discharge rates, they spread along the study area. The evaluation of precipitation data showed that the TRMM precipitation data were of high accuracy. Studies in temporal scale are indicative of the strike of drought in this region to the effect that for most months of the year, frequency and duration in dry periods are much more than in wet periods. As for seasonal scales, apart from winter, the frequency and duration of drought in spring and autumn have been longer than in wet years. Moreover, the duration of these periods was different. A comparison between the results of changes in fountain discharges and drought index in the region has verified that the drought has caused a remarkable decline in the fountain discharges.
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