There is nowadays a wealth of information about how droughts affect the hydrological cycle, but the complexity of their impacts on the environment and on society makes it difficult to develop holistic tools that allow decision-makers to have at hand information on how droughts will affect the various systems (such as human health, aquatic ecosystems or the agricultural sector) concerned. So far, data on drought impacts have mostly been used for research, i.e. to understand events or to find best-linkages to hazard indices that can be monitored. The result of such research shows that indices monitored to capture impacts have to be region and sector specific .
A recent systematic literature review has found that more than 60% of drought risk analyses do not explicitly specify the type of drought hazard that is addressed, 42% do not provide a clear definition of drought risk, only 10% develop future scenarios of drought risk, and only about 40% of the assessments establish a direct link to drought risk reduction or adaptation strategies. Of all of them, almost none was implemented in a comprehensive system oriented to be used by decision-makers.
As important as the development of risk assessments is the co-design and co-creation of tools and platforms for risk visualisation and communication based on user needs, together with relevant stakeholders. This is especially true in the case of people-centred strategies at the end-user interface, the so-called ‘last mile’ , where increased inclusiveness and alignment with the end-user are essential. Another level of complexity is found in the fact that many decision-makers lack the technical expertise to fully understand hydrological or risk specific information
To overcome these gaps, the European Drought Observatory for Resilience and Adaptation (EDORA) project aims to strengthen the European Drought Observatory (EDO) by improving drought risk assessment for different systems and at different scales, aggregating data on impacts on different sectors and fostering linkages and the establishment of drought observatories in Member States. These actions will improve resilience and adaptation to drought-related aspects of climate change across the EU. Within the framework of EDORA, this proposal foresees the development and implementation of a drought impact database, a system-specific and combined/integrated drought risk assessment methodology and a drought risk atlas.
This research was conducted in collaboration with CIMA research foundation, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, CzechGlobe, UNU Institute for Environment and Human Security.
Contact information: Dr Hans de Moel, Dr Anne van Loon and Marthe Wens
For more information, please visit the project website: https://edo.jrc.ec.europa.eu/edora/php/index.php?id=201