Past, Present and Future Drought Risk and Impact Assessments

Drought is a natural climatic event common to all ecosystems and climate regimes. The drought event is generally characterized as a natural hazard if it occurs intensively and extensively in densely populated areas or vulnerable environments, resulting in disaster when local capacities are insufficient to avoid significant damage and losses. In an area prone to drought, the local vulnerability is diverse, as do the resources they have to deal with long periods of drought and prevent damage and loss from a disaster. Disaster risk is associated with the relationship between a hazard, vulnerabilities, responsiveness, and mitigation policies. The physical drought characteristics (duration and severity) associated with vulnerabilities determine the intensity of impacts on human activities, including direct and indirect impacts on agricultural production, the water available for human consumption, energy generation, and other economic activities.

Drought risk management requires an integrated understanding of exposure to the natural hazard (water deficit) and socioeconomic and environmental vulnerabilities associated with the event. In this Research Topic, we are seeking review and research papers exploring drought risk and its components in different spatial and time scales. This special collection will aim to improve our understanding of the drought risk from a multidisciplinary perspective, guide drought risk management for the present and future, and contribute to building greater resilience to drought or reducing the impacts of drought.

We seek papers on some of the following topics:
• Drought risk monitoring and assessment (and risk components);
• Drought risk trends and future scenarios and/or forecasting;
• Drought impact assessments over different sectors (e.g., agriculture, energy production, water supply, transportation, ecosystems) at different spatial and temporal scales (past trends, current patterns, future scenarios);
• Climate change adaptation in the context of drought risk;
• Ecosystem resilience to drought risk;
• Experiences in building bridges to the “science to policy-action” aiming the implementation, consolidation, and effectiveness of national drought preparedness plans;
• Efficient strategies for communication of drought risk (hazard, vulnerabilities, local capabilities);
• Drought Risk Management.