Abstract
The present study aims to evaluate the applicability of the Surface Water Supply Index (SWSI) and the Drought Recovery Index (RDI) as monitoring instruments, to identify the frequency, intensity and duration of hydrological drought in the basins of the Banabuiú reservoirs., Castanhão and Orós, located in Ceará, Brazil. The period of analysis was from 2002 to 2020 and for both indices the annual scale was used. The evaluation of the results showed that the SWSI and the RDI behave similarly and present a good modeling of drought or water abundance events. The correlation between them was above 70% for the three studied reservoirs. However, the RDI is lagged in identifying drought, with a tendency to point to more extreme droughts. Thus, the use of indices can be considered a proactive strategy for the management of water resources, as they provide important information for decision-making by managers. In addition, the application of the SWSI in drought monitoring and early warning systems is more advantageous compared to the RDI, as it presents a simpler calculation methodology, requiring less computational effort and fewer input variables.
Keywords
correlation; SWSI; RDI
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