Articles | Volume 19, issue 10
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-19-2311-2019
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-19-2311-2019
Research article
 | 
23 Oct 2019
Research article |  | 23 Oct 2019

Extremeness of recent drought events in Switzerland: dependence on variable and return period choice

Manuela I. Brunner, Katharina Liechti, and Massimiliano Zappa

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Cited articles

Bachmair, S., Svensson, C., Hannaford, J., Barker, L. J., and Stahl, K.: A quantitative analysis to objectively appraise drought indicators and model drought impacts, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 2589–2609, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-2589-2016, 2016. a
Brunner, M. I., Seibert, J., and Favre, A.-C.: Bivariate return periods and their importance for flood peak and volume estimation, Wire's Water, 3, 819–833, https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1173, 2016. a, b
Brunner, M. I., Furrer, R., Sikorska, A. E., Viviroli, D., Seibert, J., and Favre, A.-C.: Synthetic design hydrographs for ungauged catchments: A comparison of regionalization methods, Stoch. Env. Res. Risk A., 32, 1993–2023, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00477-018-1523-3, 2018a. a, b
Brunner, M. I., Sikorska, A. E., Furrer, R., and Favre, A.-C.: Uncertainty assessment of synthetic design hydrographs for gauged and ungauged catchments, Water Resour. Res., 54, 1493–1512, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017WR021129, 2018b. a, b
Brunner, M. I., Björnsen Gurung, A., Zappa, M., Zekollari, H., Farinotti, D., and Stähli, M.: Present and future water scarcity in Switzerland: Potential for alleviation through reservoirs and lakes, Sci. Total Environ., 666, 1033–1047, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.02.169, 2019a. a
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The 2018 drought event had severe ecological, economic, and social impacts. How extreme was it in Switzerland? We addressed this question by looking at different types of drought, including meteorological, hydrological, agricultural, and groundwater drought, and at the two characteristics deficit and deficit duration. The return period estimates depended on the region, variable, and return period considered.
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