Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Standard precipitation index to track drought and assess impact of rainfall on watertables in irrigation areas

  • Published:
Irrigation and Drainage Systems

Abstract

The Standard Precipitation Index (SPI) is employed to track drought and assess the impact of rainfall on shallow groundwater levels in three selected irrigation areas of the Murray-Darling Basin in Australia. The continuous SPI method can provide better means of quantifying rainfall variability and correlating it with changes of shallow watertable levels since it is based on continuous statistical functions comparing rainfall variability over the entire rainfall record. Drought analysis in the Australian irrigation areas using SPI indicates that the recent 2000–2006 drought is not the worst drought that has occurred in the recorded history, however if the current low rainfall pattern continues, it would be one of the most prolonged drought. The shallow groundwater fluctuations in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area show a very strong correlation with winter rainfall variation. The shallow piezometric levels in the Coleambally Irrigation Area show a weaker degree of correlation with the SPI due to local and regional groundwater dynamics and changes in rice water use. The groundwater levels in the Murray Irrigation Area show least correlation with the SPI, which may be attributed to improved irrigation management practices and complex nature of the groundwater recharge and discharge processes in this area. The overall results however show that the SPI correlates well with fluctuations in shallow ground water table in irrigation areas, and can also capture major drought patterns in Australia. The correlation of SPI with groundwater levels can be adopted for environmental reporting and used as a method of relating climatic impacts on watertables. Differences in piezometric response between years with similar winter and yearly SPI values can be attributed to improvement in irrigators’ management practices.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bhuiyan C, Singh RP, Kogan FN (2006) Monitoring drought dynamics in the Aravalli region (India) using different indices based on ground and remote sensing data. Int J Appl Earth Observ Geoinform 8:289–302

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonaccorso B, Bordi I, Cancelliere A, Rossi G, Sutera A (2003) Spatial variability of drought: an analysis of the SPI in Sicily. Water Resour Manag 17:273–296

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bordi I, Fraedrich K, Jiang J-M, Sutera A (2004) Spatio–temporal variability of dry and wet periods in eastern China. Theor Appl Climatol 79:81–91

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • BOM (Bureau of Meteorology) (2006) Average annual and monthly rainfall. Australian Government: Bureau of Meteorology. http://www.bom.gov.au/climate

  • Butler BE (1971) A soil survey of the horticultural soils in the Murrumbidgee irrigation areas. New South Wales, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Melbourne, Bulletin No. 289

  • Crabb P (1997) Murray-Darling basin resources, the Murray-Darling basin commission. Canberra, Australia

    Google Scholar 

  • DEH (Department of the Environment and Heritage) (2005) Murray-Darling Basin, Australian Government: Department of the Environment and Heritage http://www.deh.gov.au/water/basins/murray-darling.html

  • Edwards DC, McKee TB (1997) Characteristics of 20th Century Drought in the United States at Multiple Time Scales. Climatology Report No. 97–2, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA, 155 pp.

  • Foley JC (1957) Drought in Australia. Bulletin No. 43, Bureau of Meteorology, Commonwealth of Australia, Melbourne

  • Gibbs WJ, Maher JV (1967) Rainfall deciles as drought indicators. Bulletin No. 48. Bureau of Meteorology, Commonwealth of Australia, Melbourne

  • Guttman NB (1998) Comparing the Palmer drought index and the standardized precipitation index. J Am Water Resour Assoc 34:113–121

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ji L, Peters AJ (2003) Assessing vegetation response to drought in the northern Great Plains using vegetation and drought indices. Remote Sens Environ 87:85–98

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khan S, Short L (2001) Assessing the impact of rainfall variability on watertables in irrigation areas. Technical report: CSIRO Land and Water: Griffith, NSW, Australia

  • Khan S, Short L, Best L (2000) Groundwater dynamics in the CIA, CSIRO consultancy report to the Coleambally Irrigation Corporation Limited

  • Khan S, Blackwell J, Rana T, Beddele R (2002) What are the options for managing climate variability in Australian catchments? CSIRO Land and Water, Griffith, NSW, Australia

    Google Scholar 

  • Khan S, Rana T, Hanjra MA (2008a) A cross disciplinary framework for linking farms with regional groundwater and salinity management targets. Agric Water Manag 95:35–47

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khan S, Mushtaq S, Hanjra MA, Schaeffer J (2008b) Estimating potential costs and gains from an aquifer storage and recovery program in Australia. Agric Water Manag 95:477–488. doi:10.1016/j.agwat.2007.1012.1002

  • Kim T-W, Valdẻs JB, Nijssen B, Roncayolo D (2006) Quantification of linkages between large-scale climatic patterns and precipitation in the Colorado River Basin. J Hydrol (Amst) 321:173–186

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lloyd-Hughes B, Saunders MA (2002) A drought climatology for Europe. Int J Climatol 22:1571–1592

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McKee TB, Doesken NJ, Kleist J (1993) The relationship of drought frequency and duration to time scales. In: Proceedings of the 8th Conference on Applied Climatology. American Meteorological Society, Boston, MA, pp 179–184

  • McKee TB, Doesken NJ, Kleist J (1995) Drought monitoring with multiple time scales. In: Proceedings of the Ninth Conference on Applied Climatology, American Meteorological Society, Boston, pp 233–236

  • Min S-K, Kwon W-T, Park E-H, Choi Y (2003) Spatial and temporal comparisons of droughts over Korea with East Asia. Int J Climatol 23:223–233

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • NDMC (2007) National drought mitigation center university of Nebraska, Lincoln, USA, Online http://www.drought.unl.edu/ accessed Jan 2008

  • NRM (Natural Resource Management) (2004) Murrumbidgee report card, Australian Government: Natural Resource Management http://www.nrm.gov.au/state/nsw/murrumbidgee/publications/report_card/index.html

  • Northey JE, Christen EW, Ayars JE, Jankowski J (2005) Occurrence and measurement of salinity stratification in shallow groundwater in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area, South-Eastern, Australia. Agric Water Manag 81:23–40

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Opoku-Ankomah Y, Cordery I (1993) Temporal variation of relations between New South Wales rainfall and the Southern Oscillation. Int J Climatol 13:51–64

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paulo AA, Ferreira E, Coelho C, Pereira LS (2005) Drought class transition analysis through Markov and Loglinear models, an approach to early warning. Agric Water Manag 77:59–81

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quiring SM, Papakryiakou TN (2003) An evaluation of agricultural drought indices for the Canadian prairies. Agric For Meteorol 118:49–62

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ropelewski CF, Halpert MS (1986) North American precipitation and temperature patterns associated with El-Ninõ/Southern oscillation (ENSO). Mon Weather Rev 114:2165–2352

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith DI, Hutchinson MF, McArthur RJ (1993) Australian climatic and agricultural drought. Drought Network News 5:11–12

    Google Scholar 

  • Tadesse T, Wilhite DA, Harms SK, Hayes MJ, Goddard S (2004) Drought monitoring using data mining techniques: a case study for Nebraska, USA. Nat Hazards 33:137–159

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tiwari A (1999) Rice water use efficiency in the Coleambally irrigation area. In: Proceedings of the rice water use efficiency workshop, CRC for Sustainable Rice Production, Griffith, March 1999

  • White DH, O’Meagher B (1995) Coping with exceptional draughts in Australia. Drought Network News 7(2):13–17

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilhite DA, Hayes MJ, Svoboda MD (2000) Drought monitoring and assessment: status and trends in the United States. In: Vogt JV, Somma F (eds) Drought and drought mitigation in Europe. Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, pp 149–160

    Google Scholar 

  • Wu H, Hayes MJ, Weiss A, Hu Q (2001) An evaluation of the standardized precipitation index, the China-Z index and the statistical Z-score. Int J Climatol 21:745–758

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wu H, Hubbard KG, Wilhite DA (2004) An agricultural drought risk-assessment model for corn and soybeans. Int J Climatol 24:723–741

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wu H, Hayes MJ, Wilhite DA, Svoboda MD (2005) The effect of the length of record on the standardized precipitation index calculation. Int J Climatol 25:505–520

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Sustainable Rice Production for funding this work.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Centre of Water for Food Security, Charles Sturt University, Building 24, Wagga Wagga Campus, Wagga Wagga, NSW, 2678, Australia

    S. Khan & H. F. Gabriel

  2. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW, 2678, Australia

    S. Khan, H. F. Gabriel & T. Rana

  3. UNESCO IHP-HELP, Paris, France

    S. Khan

  4. NIT, National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Risalpur Campus, Risalpur Cantt, Pakistan

    H. F. Gabriel

Authors
  1. S. Khan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. H. F. Gabriel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. T. Rana
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to S. Khan.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Khan, S., Gabriel, H.F. & Rana, T. Standard precipitation index to track drought and assess impact of rainfall on watertables in irrigation areas. Irrig Drainage Syst 22, 159–177 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10795-008-9049-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10795-008-9049-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation