Dynamics of multi reservoir basins in building resilience against socioeconomic drought

Socioeconomic drought as one of the most frequent natural disasters is broadly referred to conditions whereby the water supply cannot satisfy the demand. Reservoirs play a key role in water supply and demand management, which provide resilience to cope with climate extremes. Building resilience to socioeconomic droughts is a complex process that involves climatic factors, human water-use behavior, the governance systems, and stakeholders with wide-ranging authorities. This study focuses on each of the reservoirs (a multi-reservoir basin, i.e. Apalachicola River, Chattahoochee River, and the Flint River (ACF) basin) role through socioeconomic drought and tracks water deficit from the upstream reservoir of the basin. To better understand the dynamics of socioeconomic drought and its variability through time, we have used a hybrid index, Multivariate Standardized Reliability and Resilience Index (MSRRI). Key question in a basin with multiple reservoirs of different sizes (shared with different governance systems and stakeholders) is the interplay of water supply and demand in such connected system of reservoirs. To address this question, we have applied the MSRRI index on each of the ACF basin reservoirs separately and once applied it to all reservoirs as one. Our preliminary results show the magnitude and order of each reservoirs role (in a cascade of reservoirs) in building resilience against socioeconomic drought.