Xie et al. (2026) Interactions Between Multiple Drought Types Across Temporal Scales

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Hydrological Processes
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-03-26
• Authors: Cong Xie, Zhanling Li, Yuhao Wang
• DOI: 10.1002/hyp.70494

Research Groups

Specific research groups or departments are not detailed in the abstract, but the study focuses on the Heihe River Basin in China, implying affiliation with institutions in that region.

Short Summary

This study analyzed the complex interactions between meteorological, soil, vegetation, and groundwater droughts in the Heihe River Basin using an extended convergent cross mapping algorithm, revealing that temporal scale significantly influences interaction intensity and lag, with groundwater drought playing a crucial role in propagation.

Objective

• To analyze the interactions between meteorological drought (standardised precipitation index), soil drought (standardised soil moisture index), vegetation drought (standardised normalised difference vegetation index), and groundwater drought (standardised groundwater index) in the middle reach of the Heihe River Basin in China.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Middle reach of the Heihe River Basin, China.
• Temporal Scale: 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Extended convergent cross mapping (CCM) algorithm. A new method was proposed to assess the convergence of the CCM algorithm.
• Data sources: Data types are derived from standardised indices: precipitation (Standardised Precipitation Index - SPI), soil moisture (Standardised Soil Moisture Index - SSMI), normalised difference vegetation index (Standardised Normalised Difference Vegetation Index - SNDVI), and groundwater levels (Standardised Groundwater Index - SGI). Specific raw data sources (e.g., satellite, in-situ observations, reanalysis) are not detailed in the abstract.

Main Results

• The temporal scale significantly affected the intensity and time lag of unidirectional or bidirectional interactions between different drought types.
• The intensity of the interaction between meteorological drought and other drought types increased, and the time lag shortened as the temporal scale increased.
• Meteorological drought exhibited the longest lag time and the weakest effect on vegetation drought, suggesting that precipitation is not the sole factor influencing vegetation drought in the study region.
• Groundwater drought influenced soil and vegetation droughts across all temporal scales, highlighting its critical role in drought propagation within the region.

Contributions

• Application of the extended convergent cross mapping (CCM) algorithm to comprehensively analyze interactions between four distinct drought types (meteorological, soil, vegetation, groundwater) in the Heihe River Basin.
• Proposal of a novel method to assess the convergence of the CCM algorithm, enhancing its reliability.
• Identification of the significant influence of temporal scale on drought interaction intensity and time lag.
• Emphasizing the crucial and pervasive role of groundwater drought in the propagation of soil and vegetation droughts across various temporal scales in the region.

Funding

Funding information is not provided in the abstract.

Citation

@article{Xie2026Interactions,
  author = {Xie, Cong and Li, Zhanling and Wang, Yuhao},
  title = {Interactions Between Multiple Drought Types Across Temporal Scales},
  journal = {Hydrological Processes},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1002/hyp.70494},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.70494}
}