WHAT COULD BE DONE ON DROUGHT WITHIN ISDR PLATFORM?

1. WHAT COULD BE DONE ON DROUGHT WITHIN ISDR PLATFORM? DROUGHT MONITORING CENTRE - NAIROBI

2. SOME GENERAL ISSUES • DEFINITION • Absence of a precise and universally accepted definition of drought • A consequence of a natural reduction in the amount of precipitation received over an extended period of time, usually a season or more in length. • A temporary aberration, unlike aridity, which is a permanent feature of the climate DROUGHT MONITORING CENTRE - NAIROBI

3. SPECIAL CHARACTERITICS • Un like many other natural disasters such as cyclones, floods, earthquakes, etc drought has some unique characteristics -- different approaches may be required to effectively address how to reduce their impacts. • Does not directly destroy food storage; shelter; infrastructure; etc DROUGHT MONITORING CENTRE - NAIROBI

4. Effects are cumulative; • Creeps in very slowly and is often very difficult to detect its onset until some major impacts such as lack of water, food, etc start to be discernible;; DROUGHT MONITORING CENTRE - NAIROBI

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8. DROUGHT AND FLOOD FOLLOWS EACH OTHER DROUGHT MONITORING CENTRE - NAIROBI

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11. DROUGHT AND FLOOD FOLLOWS EACH OTHER • COMMON IN MANY AREAS • HIGH DEGREE OF VULNERABILITY OF THE SOCIETY • SERIOUS CHALLENGES TO STRATEGIES FOR MITIGATING THE NEGATIVE IMPACTS DROUGHT MONITORING CENTRE - NAIROBI

12. IN SUMMARY • Often forgotten once it ends, and every body seems to be caught un aware by the next one. • Most of the drought definitions are application (impact) specific. Others are regional specific. • Focus of WGI discussions were focused on three types of drought namely Meteorological, Agricultural, and hydrological droughts. DROUGHT MONITORING CENTRE - NAIROBI

13. Meteorological drought-deficiency of precipitation from expected or "normal" over an extended period of time; • Hydrological drought- deficiencies in surface and subsurface water supplies leading to lack of water for meeting normal and specific water demands. • Agricultural drought- Deficiency in the water availability for specific agricultural operations such as, deficiency of in soil moisture, which is one of the most critical factor in defining crop production potential DROUGHT MONITORING CENTRE - NAIROBI

14. INFORMATION THAT ARE OFTEN REQUIREDABOUT DROUGHT • Onset/Timing ; Intensity; Cessation; Duration • Spatial extent; • Rate of change with time, and areal spread; • Risk of the phenomenon and its likely impacts; • Relevant environmental, land use, vegetation, Socio-economic and other relevant information. DROUGHT MONITORING CENTRE - NAIROBI

15. Reducing Drought Impacts • ISDR WGI-focus: Climate and natural disasters, and in this particular case in reducing ‘drought’ related disasters. • For a long time the traditional approach to drought mitigation:remained reactive and based on response after a drought has occurred. • Vulnerability of the society to drought is increasing in many parts of the world due to increasing population, changes in land use activities, environment degradation, and other socio-economic factors. DROUGHT MONITORING CENTRE - NAIROBI

16. CAUSES:One of the climate systems that has been linked with world wide occurrences of extreme climate events such as droughts and floods is El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomena. • ENSO phenomenon is not the only cause of the extreme climate events. • It has been noted by IPCC among others that, in the recent years, and in some regions of the world, there is some evidence of significant changes in the trend, frequency and intensity of some extreme climate events such as drought. DROUGHT MONITORING CENTRE - NAIROBI

17. Droughts are natural component of the climate system that are recurrent • Drought related hazards are expected to increase in the future. • ISDR should therefore be involved in efforts to reduce the impacts of climate related disasters in close collaboration with the other relevant UN agencies, and other relevant international, regional and national institutions; Could be under taken among others within the framework of IATF and WGs on climate-related disasters, early warnings, vulnerability assessment and wild and fire. DROUGHT MONITORING CENTRE - NAIROBI

18. SOME KEY ISSUES IN ANY ISDR INITIATIVES: • Supporting and strengthening the climate observations and Scientific Networks • Enhancement of Scientific and Technical Capacities in meteorological , hydrological and other related fields, to developing countries; • Inventory of water resources indicators; • Vulnerability assessment under different environmental conditions, DROUGHT MONITORING CENTRE - NAIROBI

19. Improved understanding of the space and time of drought patterns • Understanding of causes at local regional and global levels • Development of standadized products / indicators for specific used including hazards assessments. • Communications, dissemination and feed backs system • Improvement of the monitoring, modelling and prediction capacities; DROUGHT MONITORING CENTRE - NAIROBI

20. Support all initiatives related to the promotion of Early Warning System, • Development of national and regional drought and disaster management policies; • Factoring of all drought information, and drought prediction products in the drought reduction strategies and the over all disaster management and preparedness policies; • Availability of skilled multi-disciplinary human resources; • Education and awareness DROUGHT MONITORING CENTRE - NAIROBI