What Is Drought
What Is Drought
What Is Drought
Drought should not be viewed as merely a physical phenomenon or natural event. Its
impacts on society result from the interplay between a natural event (less precipitation
than expected resulting from natural climatic variability) and the demand people place on
water supply. Human beings often exacerbate the impact of drought. Recent droughts in
both developing and developed countries and the resulting economic and environmental
impacts and personal hardships have underscored the vulnerability of all societies to this
“natural” hazard.
There are two main kinds of drought definitions: conceptual and operational.
Conceptual Definitions of Drought
Conceptual definitions, formulated in general terms, help people understand the concept
of drought. For example:
Agricultural Drought
Agricultural drought links various characteristics of meteorological (or hydrological)
drought to agricultural impacts, focusing on precipitation shortages, differences between
actual and potential evapotranspiration, soil water deficits, reduced ground water or
reservoir levels, and so forth. Plant water demand depends on prevailing weather
conditions, biological characteristics of the specific plant, its stage of growth, and the
physical and biological properties of the soil. A good definition of agricultural drought
should be able to account for the variable susceptibility of crops during different stages of
crop development, from emergence to maturity. Deficient topsoil moisture at planting
may hinder germination, leading to low plant populations per hectare and a reduction of
final yield. However, if topsoil moisture is sufficient for early growth requirements,
deficiencies in subsoil moisture at this early stage may not affect final yield if subsoil
moisture is replenished as the growing season progresses or if rainfall meets plant water
needs.
Hydrological Drought
Hydrological drought is associated with the effects of periods of precipitation (including
snowfall) shortfalls on surface or subsurface water supply (i.e., streamflow, reservoir and
lake levels, ground water). The frequency and severity of hydrological drought is often
defined on a watershed or river basin scale. Although all droughts originate with a
deficiency of precipitation, hydrologists are more concerned with how this deficiency
plays out through the hydrologic system. Hydrological droughts are usually out of phase
with or lag the occurrence of meteorological and agricultural droughts. It takes longer for
precipitation deficiencies to show up in components of the hydrological system such as
soil moisture, streamflow, and ground water and reservoir levels. As a result, these
impacts are out of phase with impacts in other economic sectors. For example, a
precipitation deficiency may result in a rapid depletion of soil moisture that is almost
immediately discernible to agriculturalists, but the impact of this deficiency on reservoir
levels may not affect hydroelectric power production or recreational uses for many
months. Also, water in hydrologic storage systems (e.g., reservoirs, rivers) is often used
for multiple and competing purposes (e.g., flood control, irrigation, recreation,
navigation, hydropower, wildlife habitat), further complicating the sequence and
quantification of impacts. Competition for water in these storage systems escalates during
drought and conflicts between water users increase significantly.
When precipitation returns to normal and meteorological drought conditions have abated,
the sequence is repeated for the recovery of surface and subsurface water supplies. Soil
water reserves are replenished first, followed by streamflow, reservoirs and lakes, and
ground water. Drought impacts may diminish rapidly in the agricultural sector because of
its reliance on soil water, but linger for months or even years in other sectors dependent
on stored surface or subsurface supplies. Ground water users, often the last to be affected
by drought during its onset, may be last to experience a return to normal water levels. The
length of the recovery period is a function of the intensity of the drought, its duration, and
the quantity of precipitation received as the episode terminates.
Socioeconomic Drought
Socioeconomic definitions of drought associate the supply and demand of some
economic good with elements of meteorological, hydrological, and agricultural drought.
It differs from the aforementioned types of drought because its occurrence depends on the
time and space processes of supply and demand to identify or classify droughts. The
supply of many economic goods, such as water, forage, food grains, fish, and
hydroelectric power, depends on weather. Because of the natural variability of climate,
water supply is ample in some years but unable to meet human and environmental needs
in other years. Socioeconomic drought occurs when the demand for an economic good
exceeds supply as a result of a weather-related shortfall in water supply. For example, in
Uruguay in 1988–89, drought resulted in significantly reduced hydroelectric power
production because power plants were dependent on streamflow rather than storage for
power generation. Reducing hydroelectric power production required the government to
convert to more expensive (imported) petroleum and stringent energy conservation
measures to meet the nation’s power needs.
In most instances, the demand for economic goods is increasing as a result of increasing
population and per capita consumption. Supply may also increase because of improved
production efficiency, technology, or the construction of reservoirs that increase surface
water storage capacity. If both supply and demand are increasing, the critical factor is the
relative rate of change. Is demand increasing more rapidly than supply? If so,
vulnerability and the incidence of drought may increase in the future as supply and
demand trends converge.