SCIENCE@home

Short to Long Streamflow Droughts: A Process‐Oriented Review

Giulia Bruno,F. Avanzi,S. Gabellani,Luca Ferraris,Manuela I. Brunner

Published 2026 in WIREs Water

ABSTRACT

Streamflow droughts pose recurrent threats to societies and freshwater ecosystems. These events span time scales from short (a few weeks) to long (multiple years), with varying impacts and management challenges depending on their duration. Streamflow droughts arise from the interaction between atmospheric anomalies in precipitation and temperature, and hydrological processes, such as actual evapotranspiration, snow and sub‐surface storage, and human activities. Therefore, they are subject to global changes in climate, water and land management. Thorough understanding and modeling of streamflow droughts are needed to cope with these extreme events under current and future conditions. Still, syntheses of the growing body of literature on the processes governing streamflow droughts of various durations and their simulation are lacking. Here, after briefly recalling definitions and methods for drought identification and characterization, we extensively review recent findings on the generation and simulation of streamflow droughts. We develop the review along two lines: (1) the main hydro‐climatic processes involved (i.e., atmospheric, land‐surface, sub‐surface, and anthropogenic processes) and (2) the time scales over which streamflow droughts can take place, by bringing together findings for events of varying durations. We then summarize the main findings that emerged from this literature review and their implications for drought monitoring, management, and adaptation. Finally, we suggest moving toward (i) large‐scale analyses at multiple temporal scales, (ii) considering event‐specific, compound drivers of streamflow droughts, and (iii) their improved simulation, as three main pathways for future research. Advancing along these directions will improve forecasting and prediction of streamflow droughts under changing conditions.

PUBLICATION RECORD

CITATION MAP

EXTRACTION MAP

CLAIMS

  • No claims are published for this paper.

CONCEPTS

  • No concepts are published for this paper.

REFERENCES

Showing 1-100 of 124 references · Page 1 of 2

12
Next

CITED BY

  • No citing papers are available for this paper.

Showing 0-0 of 0 citing papers · Page 1 of 1