Managing Drought: A Roadmap for Change in the United States
Citation
Wilhite, Donald A, Diodato, David M, Jacobs, Katharine L, Palmer, Richard N, Raucher, Bob, Redmond, Kelly, Sada, Don, Smith, Kelly Helm, Warwick, John, and Wilhelmi, Olga, Managing Drought: A Roadmap for Change in the United States: .
Summary
Economic, environmental, and societal impacts of drought are severe and extremely costly. For 1988 alone, the Climate Prediction Center calculated that drought cost the US$39 billion (in 1988 dollars). Vulnerability to drought?a routinely occurring part of the natural hydrologic cycle?is increasing in all parts of the United States due to: population growth and population shifts, especially in the water-short western states and in the Southeast; land-use changes; global climate change; and increased water resource demands. The U.S. population has increased by about 50% since 1970 to more than 300 million, much of that occurring in water-scarce western regions. Land use changes due to development and other activities reduce water storage [...]
Summary
Economic, environmental, and societal impacts of drought are severe and extremely costly. For 1988 alone, the Climate Prediction Center calculated that drought cost the US$39 billion (in 1988 dollars). Vulnerability to drought?a routinely occurring part of the natural hydrologic cycle?is increasing in all parts of the United States due to: population growth and population shifts, especially in the water-short western states and in the Southeast; land-use changes; global climate change; and increased water resource demands. The U.S. population has increased by about 50% since 1970 to more than 300 million, much of that occurring in water-scarce western regions. Land use changes due to development and other activities reduce water storage and degrade water quality. Global climate change directly and indirectly impacts the hydrologic cycle, reducing water availability and increasing vulnerability to drought in many regions of the United States. Increased demand comes from all sectors?agriculture, municipal uses, energy, ecosystem habitat maintenance, and recreation. Considered together, all of these factors call for development of collaborative, science-based, and risk-informed water resource assessments in pursuit of effective drought management and mitigation in the United States.
