Drought vulnerability indicators for global-scale drought risk assessments

Droughts are complex, multifaceted hazards that affect multiple regions of the world and cause severe environmental and social impacts. The vulnerability to droughts, however, is complex to assess and strongly depends on the sectoral focus as well as on the geographical context of the assessment. This report presents the results of an expert survey that was conducted to weigh drought vulnerability indicators according to their relevance for agricultural systems and domestic water supply. Indicators originate from multiple dimensions (social, economic, infrastructure, crime and conflict, environmental and farming practices) and are grouped into four subcategories: social susceptibility, environmental susceptibility, lack of coping capacity and lack of adaptive capacity. The findings underline that the relevance of indicators strongly varies depending on the sector which is susceptible to the negative impacts of drought. Hence, the most relevant indicators for agricultural systems differentiate significantly from the most important ones for domestic water supply. The results are used in the GlobeDrought project to include expert judgement in the vulnerability assessments. This information will be compiled together with drought hazard and exposure information into a global drought risk assessment.JRC.E.1-Disaster Risk Managemen