Drought assessment and risk analysis

Abstract

Drought is a slow-onset natural hazard recurring regionally, which is often considered as a creeping phenomenon. Drought is characterized by an accumulated departure of precipitation from the normal or expected, which may occur over a short period of time or may take months. Drought impacts affect the environment, society, and several sectors of the economy with closer links to climate, such as agriculture and food security. A holistic and integrated approach to environmental hazards, including droughts, has been gradually considered using risk analysis. This chapter addresses drought assessment and risk analysis. The different drought types are quantified, and several features are analyzed based on drought indices developed from conventional and/or remote sensing data and algorithms. Drought hazard methodologies, such as severity-duration- frequency relationships, early warnings, costbenefit analysis, and similar aspects, are incorporated within the risk management framework, namely, risk identification, risk estimation, risk evaluation, and risk governance. © 2017 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.