Water Shortage
Ongoing Research
In the last decade different regions in Germany were faced with periods of extreme low rainfall. In some river basins, e.g. in the Neckar region in 2003, critical low flows occurred. Depending on the storage capacity in soil and groundwater dry weather situations result in different low flow conditions. In this research project meteorological drought s are characterized with the Standardized Precipitation Index and related with the subsequent runoff conditions. To evaluate the risk of surface water shortages in real time the expected low flow conditions are predicted with stochastic models tailor-made for the river basin of interest.
Case Studies
- Estimation of the Standardized Precipitation Index
In May 2011it became evident that the first 5 months of this year were the driest period in many river basins since several decades of observations. To improve the monitoring concepts of water management agencies the SPI-Values were determined exemplarily for different river basins in Germany. - Exploring the possibilities for using the Standardized Precipitation Index for the reservoir operation
With the support of the State Reservoir Administration of Saxony, the options to predict stochastically low flow periods are analysed. The aims of this study are stochastic relationships between the SPI for various time periods and observed subsequent low flow situations of different durations. - Assessment of the security of water supply from the Aabach Reservoir in North Rhine- Westfalia