Drought assessment in the Ofanto River Basin

The “Water cycle and sustainability of competing uses” case study makes use of climate datasets to provide a representation/monitoring of current and future drought conditions. The evaluation of land-related water cycle components is achieved by modelling the relationship between Climatological and hydrological droughts relying on observed data. The pilot area is the Ofanto River Basin, located in Southern Italy, deeply exploited as main water resource for both civil (incl. drinking), industrial and agricultural purposes, especially thanks to the many reservoirs and run-of-river schemes along the main river and its tributaries. The Ofanto River Basin is one of the most important and large catchments in Southern Italy. The Basin covers multiple administrative Regions (NUTS 2) especially in the upper part (Campania, Basilicata, Apulia), whereas the lower basin is located completely in the Apulia Region where there is also the river delta, located between the towns of Barletta and Margherita di Savoia. The core of the application is the development of an empirical model that is able to predict the Standardised Streamflow Index accumulated in a 3-month time window (SSI-3) based on a selection of Standardised Precipitation Indices (SPI) at different periods of accumulation. The use of Very High Resolution datasets allows for better capturing current and future spatial patterns of droughts, identifying sub-catchments at risk and planning intervention strategies.