Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Engineering Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Portland State University

Series

2019

Droughts -- United States

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Remote Sensing Of Water Use Efficiency And Terrestrial Drought Recovery Across The Contiguous United States, Behzad Ahmadi, Ali Ahmadalipour, Glenn Tootle Mar 2019

Remote Sensing Of Water Use Efficiency And Terrestrial Drought Recovery Across The Contiguous United States, Behzad Ahmadi, Ali Ahmadalipour, Glenn Tootle

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Ecosystem water-use efficiency (WUE) is defined as the ratio of carbon gain (i.e., gross primary productivity; GPP) to water consumption (i.e., evapotranspiration; ET). WUE is markedly influential on carbon and water cycles, both of which are fundamental for ecosystem state, climate and the environment. Drought can affect WUE, subsequently disturbing the composition and functionality of terrestrial ecosystems. In this study, the impacts of drought on WUE and its components (i.e., GPP and ET) are assessed across the Contiguous US (CONUS) at fine spatial and temporal resolutions. Soil moisture simulations from land surface modeling are utilized to detect and characterize agricultural …


Hydrological Drought Persistence And Recovery Over The Conus: A Multi-Stage Framework Considering Water Quantity And Quality, Behzad Ahmadi, Ali Ahmadalipour, Hamid Moradkhani Mar 2019

Hydrological Drought Persistence And Recovery Over The Conus: A Multi-Stage Framework Considering Water Quantity And Quality, Behzad Ahmadi, Ali Ahmadalipour, Hamid Moradkhani

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Hydrological droughts have considerable negative impacts on water quantity and quality, and understanding their regional characteristics is of crucial importance. This study presents a multi-stage framework to detect and characterize hydrological droughts considering both streamflow and water quality changes. Hydrological droughts are categorized into three stages of growth, persistence, retreat, and water quality variables (i.e., water temperature, dissolved oxygen concentration, and turbidity) are utilized to further investigate drought recovery. The framework is applied to 400 streamflow gauges across the Contiguous United States (CONUS) over the study period of 1950–2016. The method is illustrated for the 2012 US drought, which affected …