@article{iiasa14339,
          volume = {24},
          number = {4},
           month = {February},
           title = {Intensification of hydrological drought in California by human water management},
       publisher = {American Geophysical Union},
            year = {2017},
         journal = {Geophysical Research Letters},
             doi = {10.1002/2016GL071665},
           pages = {1777--1785},
             url = {https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/eprint/14339/},
            issn = {00948276},
        abstract = {We analyze the contribution of human water management to the intensification and mitigation of hydrological drought over California using the PCR-GLOBWB hydrological model for the period 1979-2014. We demonstrate that considering water management results in more accurate discharge representation. During the severe 2014 drought, water management alleviated the drought deficit by {$\sim$}50\% in Southern California through reservoir operation during low flow periods. However, human water consumption (mostly irrigation) in the Central Valley increased drought duration and deficit by 50\% and 50-100\%, respectively. Return level analysis indicates that there is more than 50\% chance that the probability of occurrence of an extreme 2014-magnitude drought event was at least doubled under the influence of human activities compared to natural variability. This impact is most significant over the San Joaquin Drainage basin with a 50\% and 75\% likelihood that the return period is more than 3.5 and 1.5 times larger, respectively, because of human activities.},
          author = {He, X. and Wada, Y. and Wanders, N. and Sheffield, J.}
}