Copula based analysis of meteorological, hydrological and agricultural drought characteristics across Indian river basins

Abstract Duration and severity are the two most important parameters used for drought characterization. In this study, we used a bivariate copula‐based approach to understand the joint dependence of drought duration and severity of three different drought types. Three types of bivariate copulas (Gumbel, Frank and Plackett) are estimated for modelling and the best fit copula is selected over 1,162 grid points (at a resolution of 0.5° × 0.5°) of India. Further, the joint dependence of drought duration and severity are analysed to infer important properties in terms of exceedance probability and return periods. Finally, conditional probability and conditional return periods of drought characteristics are also derived, which could be useful for proper planning and management of the water resource system. From the investigation, it is observed that drought events in the Western and Central India are longer and more severe whereas the ones in the south Indian river basins are more frequent but less severe. Moreover, similar results were also obtained for the conditional probability and conditional return periods. This study provides information regarding the severe and longer drought event hotspots all over the study area and thus helpful for the policymakers in developing effective drought prevention and mitigation strategies comprehensively at a national scale.