Analysis of drought characteristics using copula theory

초록

Recently, in Korea, occurrences of floods and droughts have been increased due to Drought is a normal and recurrent phenomenon. But, recurring prolonged droughts have caused consequences and diverse impacts on human system. Therefore, understanding drought characteristics is indispensable element in well-prepared drought management. This study aims to investigate the hydrological droughts of Pyongchang stream and Upstream of Namhan river in Korea. For modelling of the joint distribution of drought duration and drought severity, the copula method is used to construct the bivariate drought distribution and return period from the predetermined marginal distributions of drought duration and drought severity. As the result, the most severe droughts occurring in the period of 1967 to 2007 in the Pyongchang stream and Upstream of Namhan river, Korea were occurred in 1981 and 1973. Return period for this drought derived from the copula theory were 550 and 110 years. © ASCE 2012.