Drought Mitigation

Mitigating Drought - Taking actions in advance of drought to reduce its long-term risk
Involve a wide range of tool: plans, policies, activities and programs
Components of a Drought Mitigation plan

Prediction Possibility of drought

Monitoring Area Basis, time basis, agriculture aspects,
Impact assessment severity of the drought e.g. suffiency of water to population
Early-warning systems hydrological modelling, climatic modelling
Action plans to deal with severity water shortage, famine
Relief and responses state, administrative organizations etc.

Main objectives to combat drought

Strategies for drought preparedness (short and long term) reducing vulnerability of
production systems to drought.
Strengthen the flow of early-warning information implement strategies for drought
intervention.
Develop and integrate drought-relief schemes
Mitigation plans/actions
Implemented during and before drought to reduce magnitude of risk to human life,
property and productive capacity.
We must shift from drought relief to drought mitigation measures.
Important for adapting to climate change, restoring ecological balance, and bringing
development benefits to the people.
Mitigation Strategies

Land and water management watershed based scheme

Alternative cropping strategies
Soil and water conservation
Water/Rainwater harvesting techniques

Drought Monitoring and Early Warning

Re: Drought is typically a slow-onset phenomenon
Often possible to provide early warning of an emerging drought
Early warning allows for a shift from reactive to proactive hazard management
Eg U.S Multiple climate indices and indicators, China Standard Precipitation Index to
monitor drought
SADM (South Asia Drought Management) based on Remote sensing data and GIS

Mitigation Measures & Preparedness

Structural/Physical Sand Dams
Non-Structural Policies, awareness
Water scarcity use of groundwater dam (Would require proper and efficient
engineering)
Protecting soil helps absorb precipitation and can also help famers use less water
Water conservation in terms of water conservation devices such as low-flow toilets,
shower heads and washing machines.
Desalination of seawater, water recycling and rainwater harvesting.
Mitigation Measures & Protection

Capacity Building
Afforestation
Dams need to be maintained to keep efficiency as when constructed.
Cloud seeding artificial method to induce rainfall
Drought monitoring continuous observation of rainfall levels and comparisons with
usage levels help prevent man made drought.
E.G analysis of water usage in Yemen reveal that their groundwater table was at a grave
risk by over use for khat crop.
Monitoring of moisture levels help predict increased risk for wildfires, using such
metrics as Palmer Drought Index
Planned crop rotation minimizes erosion and allows farmers to plant less waterdependent crops in drier years.
Outdoor water-use restriction regulate use of *sprinkles, hoses or buckets on outdoor
plants, filling pools
Rain water harvesting collection and storage of rainwater from roofs or other suitable
catchments
Transvasement Building canals or redirecting rivers as massive attempts at irrigation
in drought-prone areas.
Examples store water underground, rather than on the surface.
Ex: Mothers Water Cellar project launched in August 2000 by China Women
Development Foundation Now provides readily accessible potable water for about one
million people in rural China.
Percolation Tanks for Groundwater recharge.
Groundwater dams structures that intercept or obstruct natural flow of groundwater
and store water underground.
Priciple instead of storing the water in surface reservoirs, water is stored in
underground less contamination.
No Problem of Submergence of land.
Sub-surface dam Intercepts or obstructs the flow of an aquifer. Reduces variation of
level of groundwater table upstream of the dam. It is built entirely under the ground.

 Sand Storage Dam Constructed above ground, sand and soil particles transported
during periods of highflow (like a flood) are allowed to deposit behind the dam. It is also
constructed in layers to allow sand to be deposited and finer material be washed
downstream
Water cellar digging cellar to collect rainwater
Impact Sectors
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
(vi)
(vii)
(viii)
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Water availability
Muncipal Water
WATER Shortage/Conservation activities
Agricultural Industry
Public information and education
Fish/wildlife preservation
Health
Commerce and tourism/economy
Wildfire protection/forestry/public lands
Energy
Social

Limitations/Challenges of Drought Monitoring

Meteorological and hydrological data networks are often inadequate in terms of the
density of stations.
Data quality is also a problem because of missing data or an inadequate length of record.
Highcost of data limits their application in drought monitoring, preparedness, mitigation
and response.
Forecasts are often unreliable on the seasonal timescale and lack specificity, reducing
their usefulness for agriculture and other sectors.

Note FOR CRISSY:

Direct impacts: withering crops, dry watering points, reduced forage for livestock
Also start the last point like this:
Having taken into account all the aforementioned impacts of droughts it is thus important to
mitigate against the adverse impacts of droughts. As a result new engineering techniques must
be taught and implemented. To effectively mitigate against droughts however, we must first
understand mitigation on a process.