Risks of snow drought and impacts on streamflow in Tajikistan

LI Yupeng; CHEN Yaning; WANG Fei; ZHANG Xiang; ZHANG Qifei; SUN Fan; FANG Gonghuan; Safarkhon SHAROFIDDINOV; Jafar NIYAZOV

doi:10.1016/j.regsus.2026.100298

Regional Sustainability >

2026 , Vol. 7 >Issue 1: 100298

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.regsus.2026.100298

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Risks of snow drought and impacts on streamflow in Tajikistan

LI Yupeng ,
CHEN Yaning ,
WANG Fei ,
ZHANG Xiang ,
ZHANG Qifei ,
SUN Fan ,
FANG Gonghuan ,
Safarkhon SHAROFIDDINOV ,
Jafar NIYAZOV

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^aState Key Laboratory of Ecological Safety and Sustainable Development in Arid Lands, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, 830011, China
^bXinjiang Laboratory of Lake Environment and Resources in Arid Zone, College of Geographic Science and Tourism, Xinjiang Normal University, Urumqi, 830054, China
^cInformation Institute of the Ministry of Emergency Management of the People’s Republic of China, Beijing, 100029, China
^dNational Engineering Research Center of Geographic Information System, School of Geography and Information Engineering, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Wuhan, 430074, China
^eShenzhen Research Institute, China University of Geosciences, Shenzhen, 518063, China
^fSchool of Geographical Sciences, Shanxi Normal University, Taiyuan, 030031, China
^gAgency for hydrometeorology of the Committee of Environmental Protection under the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan, Dushanbe, 734042, Tajikistan
^hInstitute of Water Problems, Hydropower and Ecology of the National Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan, Dushanbe, 734042, Tajikistan

* E-mail address: chenyn@ms.xjb.ac.cn (CHEN Yaning).

Received date: 2025-07-31

Revised date: 2025-11-02

Accepted date: 2025-12-30

Online published: 2026-01-21

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Abstract

Tajikistan, a mountainous country and a vital water tower for Central Asia, is becoming increasingly vulnerable to snow drought under climate change, threatening its snow- and glacier-fed streamflow. Yet, the impacts of snow drought on the regional hydrology remain insufficiently understood. In this study, we integrated multisource data, including the Fifth Generation European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Atmospheric Reanalysis for Land Applications (ERA5-Land) data and hydrological station data, to systematically assess the snow drought patterns and their impacts on streamflow during 1950-2023. We identified snow drought events based on precipitation and snow fraction anomalies relative to climatological means and classified them into warm snow drought, dry snow drought, and warm&dry snow drought. The results revealed that snow drought was a recurrent phenomenon, occurring in 51.70% of the years during the study period, with warm&dry snow drought accounting for 21.90% of the total events. Both the frequency and severity exhibited pronounced spatial variability, largely governed by the elevation and snowfall fraction. Specifically, the frequency of warm snow drought was negatively correlated with the snowfall fraction, decreasing on average by 0.20 per unit increase in snowfall fraction, whereas the frequency of dry snow drought was positively correlated, increasing by 0.07 per unit increase. The streamflow analysis results demonstrated that snow drought typically reduced the warm-season discharge by 5.00%-18.00% in certain rivers, thereby exacerbating the water stress during the dry season. The results of this study advance our understanding by explicitly linking the types of snow drought to hydrological responses in Central Asia’s high mountains, providing a scientific basis for climate adaptation and sustainable water resource management in Tajikistan.

Key words： Snow drought; Snow water equivalent (SWE); Snowfall fraction; Climate change; Streamflow; ERA5-Land; Tajikistan

Cite this article

LI Yupeng , CHEN Yaning , WANG Fei , ZHANG Xiang , ZHANG Qifei , SUN Fan , FANG Gonghuan , Safarkhon SHAROFIDDINOV , Jafar NIYAZOV . Risks of snow drought and impacts on streamflow in Tajikistan[J]. Regional Sustainability, 2026 , 7(1) : 100298 . DOI: 10.1016/j.regsus.2026.100298

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