Abstract:
Drought is the utmost highly devastating phenomenon in Ethiopia because of societies that are reliant on rainfall-dependent agriculture; thus,
it is crucial to characterize drought at the basin scale using new developments in remote sensing products and recently proposed drought
indices. This study aimed to quantify drought in the Awash River Basin (ARB) using drought indices of the Standardized Precipitation Index
(SPI), Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), Evaporative Demand Drought Index (EDDI), Evaporative Stress Index (ESI),
and Water Storage Deficit Index (WSDI). The Mann–Kendall test analysis of annual and seasonal terrestrial water storage (TWS) showed a sig
nificant increase from 2002 to 2017 that is beneficial for developmental activities in the ARB. GRACE showed a record high extreme drought
that persisted for 15 months was noticed from 2005/01 to 2006/03 with a total water storage deficit of 411.8 mm with a peak shortage of
46.24 mmin2005/03, representing severe terrestrial water shortage in the ARB. This GRACE-TWS-based quantified extreme water shortage
in 2005/30 can be used as a threshold for adaptation. Overall, this study provides a reliable outcome that will be vital for the establishment of
climate change ada
