About Atlas - World Drought Atlas

PART 1:

The complexity of drought and drought risks

PART 2:

Impacted systems at global level

PART 3:

Regional perspectives

PART 4:

Managing and adapting to drought risks

Part 1:

The complexity of drought and drought risks

Droughts are increasingly and more severely affecting the lives and livelihoods of people and the integrity of ecosystems worldwide. Droughts emerge from the interaction of natural climate variability, climate change and human water resource management, materialising in unexpected ways at all latitudes and sparing almost no productive sector. This complexity is still a challenge to understand, monitor and respond to. A systemic perspective can help highlight how different drivers of hazard, exposure, vulnerability and their root causes combine to create drought risks. Such an approach is especially critical for understanding how these drivers disrupt interconnected systems through direct, cascading and response effects, felt across diverse temporal and geographical scales. Systemic measures are needed to find sustainable solutions to drought risks together with risks connected with other hazards, with the objective of achieving water resilience and security for all.

← The city of Ölgiy on the banks of the Hobda river, Bayan-Ölgiy Province, Mongolia.
Source: Alexey -stock.adobe.com

Part 2:

Impacted
systems at
global level

Water resources are vital for natural and socio-economic systems. Droughts pose a significant threat to these resources, disrupting their functioning and causing diverse impacts. For instance, droughts can severely affect ecosystem biodiversity and carbon storage potential, leading to long-lasting harm to both nature’s intrinsic value and
its contributions to human well-being. In addition, a deficit of rain, surface and/or groundwater can directly affect humans through shortages in drinking water or food supply. Droughts can also indirectly affect livelihoods and socio-economic systems. For example, droughts can reduce hydropower generation, leading to higher energy prices or power outages, and can disrupt local and international supply chains due to low water levels that hinder transportation in inland waterways. Due to cross-sectoral dependencies and connections, such impacts do not occur in isolation, and drought-related impacts on one sector can trigger cascading effects, including exacerbating inequalities and conflicts and threatening public health.

← Old ships on the shore of a drying Amu Darya river, Xorazm Region, Uzbekistan.
Source: bbsferrari – stock.adobe.com

Part 3:

Regional perspectives

Droughts are not confined to arid regions; they occur globally, affecting areas as diverse as tropical rainforests, alpine mountain ranges and small islands. The impacts of droughts vary by geographic context, but they consistently pose challenges to both people and ecosystems. While droughts are often associated with vegetation loss and agricultural stress in rural areas, urban centres around the world can also be severely affected, particularly in terms of water supply. Effective responses to drought reflect communities’ and regions’ specific circumstances, yet there are commonalities that offer valuable opportunities for shared learning and collaboration.

← A woman collecting water from a hand pump in Bol, Chad, highlighting community resilience in the face of drought around the shrinking Lake Chad.
Source: Pape Mamadou Camara / UNCCD.

Part 4:

Managing and adapting to drought risks

Understanding and characterising the complexity of drought risks is only one part of the challenge in adequately preparing for and responding to drought. Comprehensive drought risk management and adaptation that is forward looking, inclusive and prospective is needed, especially to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change and to realise the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This requires comprehensive and coordinated decision making to implement diverse drought risk management and adaptation pathways that provide benefits across multiple sectors. When combined, different mitigation and adaptation options and pathways can create synergies and have positive cascading effects, strengthening the resilience of human and more-than-human systems.

← An aerial view of restored land in Mauritania, part of the Great Green Wall initiative to combat desertification and build resilience to drought.
Source: Great Green Wall Accelerator / UNCCD.