Shalini (2026) Apparent recovery asymmetry across global reservoir records can be reproduced by index thresholds and persistence

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

Identification

• Journal: Environmental Research Letters
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-09-08
• Authors: B Shalini
• DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/aea434

Research Groups

• Department of Hydrology, University of Colorado Boulder
• NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Short Summary

This study investigates the duration of below-normal conditions in reservoir storage after the minimum is reached and proposes a new approach to treat this duration as an index diagnostic rather than physical refill time. The research uses satellite storage estimates for 6,819 reservoirs from 1999-2018.

Objective

• Investigate the relevance of the duration of below-normal conditions in reservoir storage after the minimum is reached to water security

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Global (6,819 reservoirs)
• Temporal Scale: Monthly data from 1999-2018

Methodology and Data

• Models used: None mentioned
• Data sources: Satellite storage estimates

Main Results

• The conventional whole-month ratio is often biased due to the inclusion of events that reach their trough in the entry month.
• Linear interpolation of entry and exit crossings reduces the median ratio, while treating source-interpolated months as missing further reduces it.
• Using a standardized storage index (SSI) = -1 for both entry and exit reduces the whole-month and continuous ratios to approximately 1.0.

Contributions

• The study provides new insights into the duration of below-normal conditions in reservoir storage after the minimum is reached, highlighting its relevance to water security.
• The proposed approach treats SSI exit duration as an index diagnostic rather than physical refill time, which may improve reservoir management practices.

Funding

• This research was not funded by any specific project or program.

Citation

@article{Shalini2026Apparent,
  author = {Shalini, B},
  title = {Apparent recovery asymmetry across global reservoir records can be reproduced by index thresholds and persistence},
  journal = {Environmental Research Letters},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1088/1748-9326/aea434},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aea434}
}