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Abstract:
In recent decades, severe droughts have affected many river basins in Africa with causing environmental and social damage. Prioritizing adaptation measurement requires drought evaluation over large river basins. In this paper, we provide a more reliable droughts evaluation over the major river basins in Africa (i.e., Nile, Congo, Niger, Zambezi, and Orange) by creating a weighted water storage deficit index (WWSDI) with considering each component role of Terrestrial Water Storage (TWS) on the drought signal. The WWSDI results showed that the most severe droughts were occurred in 2006, 2012, 2006, 2006, and 2003 in the Nile, Congo, Niger, Zambezi, and Orange basins, respectively. The most prolonged drought of 84 months was observed over the Niger basin. A significant wetting tendency was detected over the Nile, Niger, Zambezi, and Orange basins, while a mild trend was observed in the Congo basin.
