Identifying regional hotspots of heatwaves, droughts, floods, and their co-occurrences
In this paper, the authors present a framework to aid in the selection of optimal environmental indicators for detecting and mapping extreme events and analyzing trends in heatwaves, meteorological and hydrological droughts, floods, and their compound occurrence. The framework uses temperature, precipitation, river discharge, and derived climate indices to characterize the spatial distribution of hazard intensity, frequency, duration, co-occurrence, and dependence. The relevant climate indices applied are Standardized Precipitation Index, Standardized Precipitation and Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), Standardized Streamflow Index, heatwave indices based on fixed (HWIS) and anomalous temperatures (HWIE), and Daily Flood Index (DFI).
The overall aim of this paper is to develop and test a data-driven and streamlined framework for identifying and mapping localized hotspots and analyzing trends in single and compound hydroclimatic hazards, thereby addressing the need for region-specific multi-hazard assessments with locally available data and validated inputs.
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