TY  - JOUR
ID  - iiasa14339
UR  - https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/eprint/14339/
IS  - 4
A1  - He, X.
A1  - Wada, Y.
A1  - Wanders, N.
A1  - Sheffield, J.
Y1  - 2017/02/28/
N2  - 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 ?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.
PB  - American Geophysical Union
JF  - Geophysical Research Letters
VL  - 24
SN  - 00948276
TI  - Intensification of hydrological drought in California by human water management
SP  - 1777
AV  - public
EP  - 1785
ER  -