Understanding and detecting super-extreme droughts in Southwest China through an integrated approach and index

In the last decade, a series of super-extreme droughts have swept across Southwest China (SWC). However, the essential features behind them are not yet fully understood and traditional drought indices as well as precipitation fail to describe them, due to the lack of a comprehensive treatment of drought. We propose an integrated metric, the Comprehensive Multiscalar Indicator (CMI), as a new criterion for super-drought detection. Re-examination of SWC droughts illuminates the essential feature of super-drought events: a combination of multiple stresses on water resources, which highlights the utility of the CMI.