She and Mr Perquin were investigating the relationship between the two types of drought, including the historical impacts (including severity) of meteorological droughts, their influence on stream flows, and how they could be used to model current and future impacts.
Ms Pham said with Northland experiencing a number of droughts in recent years, their research was expected to provide valuable and useful information, noting that over the period studied for the presentation (July 2018-June 2019) the amount of water in some Northland streams had reduced dramatically.
Meanwhile the regional council is already keeping a close eye on the water situation in Northland as the region inches ever closer to another potentially dry summer, prompting local authority water restrictions in some areas already.
Figures released by the council in October showed the Mid and Far North had received a third to 40 per cent less rain than usual over the previous 12 months.
The problem had been made worse by consecutive dry periods leading up to winter this year. In the first six months of this year Kerikeri and Whangarei were the driest they had been in more than 80 years (since 1935 and 1937 respectively), and the situation had not really improved since then.
River and rainfall data can be found at www.nrc.govt.nz/riversandrain, while restrictions on public water supplies provided by Northland's three district councils are at www.bewaterwise.org.nz