DROUGHT-R&SPI · Fostering European Drought Research and Science-Policy Interfacing

The project will reduce future Europe’s vulnerability and risk to drought by innovative in-depth studies that combine drought investigations in six case study areas in water-stressed regions (river basin and national scale) with drought analyses at the pan-European scale. Knowledge transfer across these scales is paramount because vulnerability is context-specific (e.g. physical, environmental, socio-economic, cultural, legal, institutional), which requires analyses on detailed scales, whereas international policies and drought-generating climate drivers and land surface processes are operating on large scales. The project will adopt Science-Policy Interfacing at the various scales, by establishing Case Study Dialogue Fora and a pan-Europe Dialogue Forum, which will ensure that the research will be well integrated into the policy-making from the start of the project onwards. The study will foster a better understanding of past droughts (e.g. underlying processes, occurrences, environmental and socio-economic impacts, past responses), which then will contribute to the assessment of drought hazards and potential vulnerabilities in the 21th C. An innovative methodology for early drought warning at the pan-European scale will be developed, which will improve on the forecasting and a suite of interlinked physical and impact indicators. This will help to increase drought preparedness, and to indentify and implement appropriate Disaster Risk Reduction measures (along the lines of the UN/ISDR HFA). The project will lead through the combined drought studies at different scales to the identification of drought-sensitive regions and sectors across Europe and a more thorough implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive, particularly by further developing of methodologies for Drought Management Plans at different scales (incl. EU level). The work will be linked with the European Drought Centre ensuring that the outcome will be consolidated beyond the project’ lifetime.