Abstract: Climate change and human activities have considerable influences on the drought events in Hanjiang River basin. The inversion of terrestrial water storage by using remote sensing technologies can make up the drawbacks of traditional observation techniques. The drought events in Hanjiang River Basin from 2004 to 2014 are identifıed by water storage defıcits based on GRACE(Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellite data, and the impact of drought events on the water balance change is quantitatively analyzed by using multi-satellite data and water use data. Results demonstrate that drought events occurred in Hanjiang River Basin in 2006, 2007, 2011 and 2013. Rainfall, evaporation, and human activity (reservoir operation and water withdrawals) were significantly correlated with terrestrial water storage changes at annual scale. The rates of contribution of climate change to drought events were 0.41, 0.43, 0.36 and 0.36, respectively, while the rates of contribution of human activities to the drought events were 0.59, 0.57, 0.65 and 0.64, respectively. The trends of contribution rate implies an increasing influence of human activities on drought events in the Hanjiang River Basin.

Key words: GRACE, water storage defıcits, drought, climate change, human activities, Hanjiang River Basin