Hydrological Droughts in a Changing Climate: Non-stationarity in Low Flow Regimes

Changes in climate can cause an intensification of droughts. This thesis explores the non-stationarity (implying changes in the probability distribution) of drought characteristics in catchments in southeast Australia. The study investigates the role of large-scale climate drivers in modulating hydrological droughts and looks at how this relationship is expected to change if anthropogenic warming continues. Further, the work explores shifts in drought regimes that cause these events to deviate from their average behavior. Finally, the work quantifies the changes in the magnitude of droughts when the above shifts occur. The findings have implications for water management and climate change adaptation.