An agricultural drought early warning threshold model with considering copula combined with diminishing marginal benefit theory: A case study in the Yellow River basin

Agricultural drought-induced yield reductions threaten socioeconomic stability and food security. Reliable early warning systems are essential for mitigating these threats. However, agricultural drought early warning based on meteorological conditions remains poorly explored, and prevalent condition...

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Main Authors: Tanrui Qian, Xiaoling Su, Haijiang Wu, Vijay P. Singh, Te Zhang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-07-01
Series:Agricultural Water Management
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377425002963
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author Tanrui Qian
Xiaoling Su
Haijiang Wu
Vijay P. Singh
Te Zhang
author_facet Tanrui Qian
Xiaoling Su
Haijiang Wu
Vijay P. Singh
Te Zhang
author_sort Tanrui Qian
collection DOAJ
description Agricultural drought-induced yield reductions threaten socioeconomic stability and food security. Reliable early warning systems are essential for mitigating these threats. However, agricultural drought early warning based on meteorological conditions remains poorly explored, and prevalent conditional probabilities for determining drought propagation thresholds are largely subjective. In this study, an agricultural drought early warning threshold (ADEWarT) model was developed, combining Copula and diminishing marginal benefit theory, leveraging inherent regional drought propagation characteristics to objectively determine the thresholds. The ADEWarT model was applied and evaluated in the rain-fed agricultural areas of the Yellow River basin (raYRB) during the crop-growing seasons. Results showed that in most raYRB during the crop-growing seasons, early warning indicators for agricultural drought were the preceding meteorological drought conditions, while in the central-western raYRB during spring, they were the preceding compound drought and hot events. The performance metric, Matthews correlation coefficient (MCC), demonstrated that the ADEWarT model performed well (MCC > 0.4) across the raYRB. Compared with subjectively determined propagation thresholds, the proposed model exhibited superior performance during summer and autumn. The eXtreme Gradient Boosting combined with SHapley Additive exPlanations (XGBoost-SHAP) method revealed that the impacts of vegetation on early warning thresholds were modulated by hydrothermal conditions. Areas with lower absolute early warning thresholds were generally located on steep slopes, shady aspects, and at low elevations across the raYRB, indicating higher agricultural drought risk. This study provides technical guidance for agricultural drought risk management in the raYRB and offers a transferable framework applicable to other regions.
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spelling doaj-art-27c279d9684f4d308df5acf8fbf90a852025-08-20T02:01:51ZengElsevierAgricultural Water Management1873-22832025-07-0131610958210.1016/j.agwat.2025.109582An agricultural drought early warning threshold model with considering copula combined with diminishing marginal benefit theory: A case study in the Yellow River basinTanrui Qian0Xiaoling Su1Haijiang Wu2Vijay P. Singh3Te Zhang4Key Laboratory for Agricultural Soil and Water Engineering in Arid Area of Ministry of Education, Northwest A&F University, Shaanxi, China; College of Water Resources and Architectural Engineering, Northwest A&F University, Shaanxi, ChinaKey Laboratory for Agricultural Soil and Water Engineering in Arid Area of Ministry of Education, Northwest A&F University, Shaanxi, China; College of Water Resources and Architectural Engineering, Northwest A&F University, Shaanxi, China; Correspondence to: College of Water Resources and Architectural Engineering, Northwest A&F University, Xinong Road 22, Yangling, Shaanxi, China.Key Laboratory for Agricultural Soil and Water Engineering in Arid Area of Ministry of Education, Northwest A&F University, Shaanxi, China; College of Water Resources and Architectural Engineering, Northwest A&F University, Shaanxi, ChinaDepartment of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA; Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA; National Water and Energy Center, UAE University, Al Ain, United Arab EmiratesCollege of Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering, China Three Gorges University, Yichang, ChinaAgricultural drought-induced yield reductions threaten socioeconomic stability and food security. Reliable early warning systems are essential for mitigating these threats. However, agricultural drought early warning based on meteorological conditions remains poorly explored, and prevalent conditional probabilities for determining drought propagation thresholds are largely subjective. In this study, an agricultural drought early warning threshold (ADEWarT) model was developed, combining Copula and diminishing marginal benefit theory, leveraging inherent regional drought propagation characteristics to objectively determine the thresholds. The ADEWarT model was applied and evaluated in the rain-fed agricultural areas of the Yellow River basin (raYRB) during the crop-growing seasons. Results showed that in most raYRB during the crop-growing seasons, early warning indicators for agricultural drought were the preceding meteorological drought conditions, while in the central-western raYRB during spring, they were the preceding compound drought and hot events. The performance metric, Matthews correlation coefficient (MCC), demonstrated that the ADEWarT model performed well (MCC > 0.4) across the raYRB. Compared with subjectively determined propagation thresholds, the proposed model exhibited superior performance during summer and autumn. The eXtreme Gradient Boosting combined with SHapley Additive exPlanations (XGBoost-SHAP) method revealed that the impacts of vegetation on early warning thresholds were modulated by hydrothermal conditions. Areas with lower absolute early warning thresholds were generally located on steep slopes, shady aspects, and at low elevations across the raYRB, indicating higher agricultural drought risk. This study provides technical guidance for agricultural drought risk management in the raYRB and offers a transferable framework applicable to other regions.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377425002963Diminishing marginal benefit theoryEarly warningAgricultural droughtCopulaXGBoostSHAP
spellingShingle Tanrui Qian
Xiaoling Su
Haijiang Wu
Vijay P. Singh
Te Zhang
An agricultural drought early warning threshold model with considering copula combined with diminishing marginal benefit theory: A case study in the Yellow River basin
Agricultural Water Management
Diminishing marginal benefit theory
Early warning
Agricultural drought
Copula
XGBoost
SHAP
title An agricultural drought early warning threshold model with considering copula combined with diminishing marginal benefit theory: A case study in the Yellow River basin
title_full An agricultural drought early warning threshold model with considering copula combined with diminishing marginal benefit theory: A case study in the Yellow River basin
title_fullStr An agricultural drought early warning threshold model with considering copula combined with diminishing marginal benefit theory: A case study in the Yellow River basin
title_full_unstemmed An agricultural drought early warning threshold model with considering copula combined with diminishing marginal benefit theory: A case study in the Yellow River basin
title_short An agricultural drought early warning threshold model with considering copula combined with diminishing marginal benefit theory: A case study in the Yellow River basin
title_sort agricultural drought early warning threshold model with considering copula combined with diminishing marginal benefit theory a case study in the yellow river basin
topic Diminishing marginal benefit theory
Early warning
Agricultural drought
Copula
XGBoost
SHAP
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377425002963
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