Drought propagation under global warming: Characteristics, approaches, processes, and controlling factors

Drought is a costly natural hazard with far-reaching impacts on agriculture, ecosystem, water supply, and socioeconomy. While propagating through the water cycle, drought evolves into different types and affects the natural system and human society. Despite much progress made in recent decades, a synthesis of the characteristics, approaches, processes, and controlling factors of drought propagation is still lacking. We bridge this gap by reviewing the recent progress of drought propagation and discussing challenges and future directions. We first introduce drought propagation characteristics (e.g., response time scale, lag time), followed by different approaches, including statistical analysis and hydrological modeling. The recent progress in the propagation from meteorological drought to different types of drought (agricultural drought, hydrological drought, and ecological drought) is then synthesized, including the basic process, commonly used indicators, data sources, and main findings of drought propagation characteristics. Different controlling factors of drought propagations, including climate (e.g., aridity, seasonality, and anomalies of meteorological variables), catchment properties (e.g., slope, elevation, land cover, aquifer, baseflow), and human activities (e.g., reservoir operation and water diversion, irrigation, and groundwater abstraction), are then summarized. Challenges in drought propagation include the discrepancy in drought indicators (and approaches) and difficulty in characterizing the full propagation process and isolating influencing factors. Future analysis of drought propagation should shift from single indicators to multiple indicators, from individual drivers to combined drivers, from unidirectional analysis to feedbacks, from hazards to impacts, and from stationary to nonstationary assumptions. This review is expected to be useful for drought prediction and management across different regions under global warming.

Automated summary

This review examines the recent progress in drought propagation, discusses challenges and proposes future directions. It provides a synthesis of the characteristics, approaches, processes, and controlling factors of drought propagation. The review highlights the importance of shifting towards multiple indicators, combined drivers, feedbacks, impacts, and nonstationary assumptions in future analysis of drought propagation.