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- Shyrokaya, Anastasiya, et al.
(author)
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Advances and gaps in the science and practice of impact‐based forecasting of droughts
- 2023
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In: WIREs Water. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 2049-1948.
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Advances in impact modeling and numerical weather forecasting have allowed accurate drought monitoring and skilful forecasts that can drive decisions at the regional scale. State-of-the-art drought early-warning systems are currently based on statistical drought indicators, which do not account for dynamic regional vulnerabilities, and hence neglect the socio-economic impact for initiating actions. The transition from conventional physical forecasts of droughts toward impact-based forecasting (IbF) is a recent paradigm shift in early warning services, to ultimately bridge the gap between science and action. The demand to generate predictions of “what the weather will do” underpins the rising interest in drought IbF across all weather-sensitive sectors. Despite the large expected socio-economic benefits, migrating to this new paradigm presents myriad challenges. In this article, we provide a comprehensive overview of drought IbF, outlining the progress made in the field. Additionally, we present a road map highlighting current challenges and limitations in the science and practice of drought IbF and possible ways forward. We identify seven scientific and practical challenges/limitations: the contextual challenge (inadequate accounting for the spatio-sectoral dynamics of vulnerability and exposure), the human-water feedbacks challenge (neglecting how human activities influence the propagation of drought), the typology challenge (oversimplifying drought typology to meteorological), the model challenge (reliance on mainstream machine learning models), and the data challenge (mainly textual) with the linked sectoral and geographical limitations. Our vision is to facilitate the progress of drought IbF and its use in making informed and timely decisions on mitigation measures, thus minimizing the drought impacts globally.
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2. |
- Shyrokaya, Anastasiya, et al.
(author)
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Significant relationships between drought indicators and impacts for the 2018-2019 drought in Germany
- 2024
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In: Environmental Research Letters. - : Institute of Physics Publishing (IOPP). - 1748-9326. ; 19:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Despite the scientific progress in drought detection and forecasting, it remains challenging to accurately predict the corresponding impact of a drought event. This is due to the complex relationships between (multiple) drought indicators and adverse impacts across different places/hydroclimatic conditions, sectors, and spatiotemporal scales. In this study, we explored these relationships by analyzing the impacts of the severe 2018–2019 central European drought event in Germany. We first computed the standardized precipitation index (SPI), the standardized precipitation evaporation index (SPEI), the standardized soil moisture index (SSMI) and the standardized streamflow index (SSFI) over various accumulation periods, and then related these indicators to sectorial losses from the European drought impact report inventory (EDII) and media sources. To cope with the uncertainty associated with both drought indicators and impact data, we developed a fuzzy method to categorize them. Lastly, we applied the method at the region level (EU NUTS1) by correlating monthly time series. Our findings revealed strong and significant relationships between drought indicators and impacts over different accumulation periods, albeit in some cases region-specific and time-variant. Furthermore, our analysis established the interconnectedness between various sectors, which displayed systematically co-occurring impacts. As such, our work provides a new framework to explore drought indicators-impacts dependencies across space, time, sectors, and scales. In addition, it emphasizes the need to leverage available impact data to better forecast drought impacts.
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3. |
- Van Loon, Anne F., et al.
(author)
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Review article: Drought as a continuum: memory effects in interlinked hydrological, ecological, and social systems
- 2024
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Other publication (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Droughts are often long lasting phenomena, without a distinct start or end, and with impacts cascading across sectors and systems, creating long-term legacies. Nevertheless, our current perception and management of droughts and their impacts is often event-based, which can limit the effective assessment of drought risks and reduction of drought impacts. Here, we advocate for changing this perspective and viewing drought as a hydro-eco-social continuum. We take a systems theory perspective and focus on how “memory” causes feedback and interactions between parts of the interconnected systems at different time scales. We first discuss the characteristics of the drought continuum with a focus on the hydrological, ecological, and social systems separately; and then study the system of systems. Our analysis is based on a review of the literature and a study of five cases: Chile, the Colorado River Basin in the US, Northeast Brazil, Kenya, and the Rhine River Basin in Northwest Europe. We find that the memories of past dry and wet periods, carried by both bio-physical (e.g. groundwater, vegetation) and social systems (e.g. people, governance), influence how future drought risk manifests. We identify four archetypes of drought dynamics: Impact & recovery; Slow resilience-building; Gradual collapse; and High resilience, big shock. The interactions between the hydrological, ecological and social systems result in systems shifting between these types, which plays out differently in the five case studies. We call for more research on drought preconditions and recovery in different systems, on dynamics cascading between systems and triggering system changes, and on dynamic vulnerability and maladaptation. Additionally, we argue for more continuous monitoring of drought hazards and impacts, modelling tools that better incorporate memories and adaptation responses, and management strategies that increase social and institutional memory to better deal with the complex hydro-eco-social drought continuum and identify effective pathways to adaptation.
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