Drought and Water Scarcity

Droughts and water scarcity collectively represent a substantial threat to our natural environment, agricultural and industrial production, water supply infrastructure and societal well-being. The ‘risk’ of drought can be considered as the product of the probability of a drought occurring and the consequences of the drought.

However, our ability to characterise and understand their occurrence, duration and intensity, and to effectively implement management responses to minimise their impacts, is often inadequate or inappropriate. The drivers of drought and water scarcity, both meteorological and sectoral (for example, supply and demand balance, water storage, transfer and utility trends) are often considered in isolation with little attention given to integrated impacts or inter-dependencies. 

We also often ignore to how droughts influence the behaviour of complex hydrological, ecological, agricultural, social and economic systems. It is thus difficult to calculate the costs associated with stressing these systems, in order to make more informed management decisions regarding trade-offs between competing water demands under conditions of water scarcity or drought.

This short course considers the different definitions of drought and the derivation and application of selected drought risk metrics, the engineering and management measures available to reduce impact, and economic techniques for evaluating drought impacts and managing drought risk. The course focuses on impact and management responses in three key sectors, domestic (public water supply), agriculture (rainfed and irrigated cropping) and the environment (aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems).