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Coping with Drought Risk in Agriculture and Water Supply: Drought Management Guidelines for the Mediterranean Ana Iglesias, Luis Garrote, Antonio Cancelliere 0 Resenhas Springer, 2009 - 320 páginas Today drought causes severe social problems and receives broad attention from the international scientific and policy communities. Drought management in the Mediterranean region exemplifies many other drought-prone regions with rapidly expanding populations that are placing increased pressure on already limited water supplies. The experiences in the development and implementation of drought management plans in the Mediterranean highlight the success and challenges of coping with drought for societies with different vulnerabilities. Based on these experiences and the current methods for evaluating risk, the book synthesises guidelines for drought management that can be applied to other regions. Coping with Drought Risk in Agriculture and Water Supply Systems addresses the growing issue of drought preparedness planning, monitoring, and mitigation which has worldwide application. The book collates considerable information from diverse disciplines. The information is presented to appeal to a broad scientific and policy audience seeking to develop proactive drought management plans effective for decreasing social vulnerability

Drought and water crises: science, technology, and management issues Donald A. Wilhite 0 Resenhas CRC Press, 2005 - 406 páginas Today the world is facing a greater water crisis than ever. Droughts of lesser magnitude are resulting in greater impact. Even in years with normal precipitation, water shortages have become widespread in both developing and developed nations, in humid as well as arid climates. When faced with severe drought, governments become eager to act. Unfortunately, this eagerness usually wanes when precipitation returns to normal. Drought and Water Crises: Science, Technology, and Management Issues explains the complexities of drought and the role of science, technology, and management in resolving many of the issues associated with the world's expanding water crises. Contributors discuss a broad range of topics in attempting to answer these most pressing questions: How can we can improve planning tools and make mitigation tools more readily available and adaptable? How can we promote widespread adoption of new water-conserving technologies and encourage their use during non-drought periods? How can seasonal forecasts and early warning systems be made more reliable and expressed in ways to better meet the needs of end users? How can the drought-related policy experiences of some countries be systematically utilized to benefit others? Drought and Water Crises collates considerable information from diverse disciplines with the goal of reducing societal vulnerability to drought. Featuring case studies and stressing new technologies, the book seeks to encourage nations to adopt a more risk-based, proactive policy for water and drought management.

From disaster response to risk management: Australia's national drought policy Linda Courtenay Botterill, Donald A. Wilhite 0 Resenhas Springer, 2005 - 209 páginas In 1992 Australia's Commonwealth and State governments announced the introduction of a National Drought Policy adopting an innovative risk management approach, which received broad support from Australia's major political parties and the policy community.This trail-blazing attempt and the experiences with the development and implementation of this policy over the past decade have intrigued the international scientific and policy communities. The present book comprises an academically focused collection of papers, which the Editors hope will provide others moving in a similar direction with the benefit of experience. The work highlights the successes and challenges of a move from disaster to risk management in responding to drought.As such it will be a valuable and useful addition to the international literature on drought preparedness and response

Natural disasters and extreme events in agriculture: impacts and mitigation M. V. K. Siva Kumar, Mannava V. K. Sivakumar, Raymond P. Motha, Haripada P. Das 0 Resenhas Springer, 2005 - 367 páginas Agricultural production is highly dependent on weather, climate and water availability and is adversely affected by the weather and climate-related disasters. Droughts and natural disasters such as floods can result in crop failures, food insecurity, famine, loss of property and life, mass migration and negative national economic growth. It may not be possible to prevent the occurrence of these natural disasters, but the resultant disastrous effects can be reduced considerably through proper planning and effective preparation. Vulnerability associated with the hazards of natural disasters can be controlled to some extent by accurate and timely prediction and by taking counter-measures to reduce their impacts on agriculture. This book based on an expert meeting held in Beijing, China should be of interest to all organizations involved in disasters reduction and mitigation of extreme events. TOC:Preface.- Impacts of Natural Disasters in Agriculture.- The Role of Disaster Preparedness in National Planning.- The Occurrence and Predictability of Extreme Events.- Accessibility of Database Information.- Tools for Forecasting or Warning.- Agrometeorological Impact Assessment.- Damage Assessment of Agrometeorological Relevance.- Impacts of Tropical Cyclones on Chinese Lowland Agriculture.- Frost and High Temperature Injury in China.- Impacts of Sand Storms/Dust Storms on Agriculture.- Disaster Reduction Planning and Response.- Agricultural Drought Policy and Practices in Australia.- Agrometeorological Disaster Risk Management in China.- Degradation of Vegetation and Agricultural Productivity.- Agricultural Drought Mitigation.- Early Detection and Monitoring of Drought and Flood in China.- The Decision of the Center of a Tropical Cyclone.- Application of Remote Sensing and GIS fo

Drought: a global assessment Donald A. Wilhite 1 Resenha Routledge, 2000

Building Resilience on the Prairies Adaptation as Resilience Building What's New? Manitoba Agricultural Producer Primer This brochure provides a summary of how Manitoba producers have coped and adapted to past weather-related shocks and stresses. It is based on Masters degree research undertaken by Peter Myers at the Natural Resources Institute, University of Manitoba. In October 2004, IISD initiated a new project in partnership with the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (the rural extension service of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada) and the University of Manitoba's Natural Resources Institute. This two-year project funded by Canada's Climate Change Action Fund will examine the resilience of prairie communities to past climate stresses as a means of strengthening adaptation to future climate change. The project is based on the premise that prairie agro-ecosystems, or the inter-relationship between social and ecological systems in the prairie region, have been continuously adapting (successfully and unsuccessfully) to historic climate variability. By examining successful examples of how agro-ecosystems have adapted to past climate stress, IISD and its partners believe that we learn how to promote adaptive capacity and build the resilience of prairie agro-ecosystems to present climate change. It is expected that the project's research findings will make an important contribution to the design of Canada's evolving Agricultural Policy Framework. Project Reports Farmer Responses to Weather Shocks and Stresses in Manitoba: A Resilience Approach (PDF - 644 kb) A Masters Thesis by Peter Myers describing how producers in Manitoba have dealt with past weather- related shocks and stresses as a view toward future coping and adaptation for climate change. Living with Climate Change: How Prairie Farmers Deal with Increasing Weather Variability (PDF - 2.4 mb) A technical report by Masters student Kent Pearce describing how producers in Saskatchewan

Natural disaster hotspots: a global risk analysis, Parte 611 Maxx Dilley 1 Resenha World Bank Publications, 2005 - 132 páginas This report presents a global view of major natural disaster risk hotspots - areas at relatively high risk of loss from one or more natural hazards. It summarizes the results of an interdisciplinary analysis of the location and characteristics of hotspots for six natural hazards - earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, floods, drought, and cyclones. Data on these hazards are combined with state-of-the-art data on the subnational distribution of population and economic output and past disaster losses to identify areas at relatively high risk from one or more hazards.

Climate change is projected to bring a range of changes in temperature, precipitation patterns, and sea level. As a result, widespread occurrence of floods, cyclones, droughts, cold and heat waves, etc. are projected with uneven distribution in time and spatial scales (Rosenzweig et al., 2007). These changes can manifest in the form of long-term slow changes in the mean state of the climate and sudden changes in the extremes of the climate (Carter et al., 2007). The sudden severe changes can have high impacts with widespread devastation, severely impacting years of developmental efforts in many vulnerable countries