Search

Due to climate change, the frequency and intensity of droughts are expected to increase. To improve resilience to droughts, proactive drought management is essential. Economic assessments are typically included to decide on the drought risk-reducing investments to make. The choice of both methods and scope of economic assessments influences the outcome, and thus the investment choice. This paper aims to identify how comprehensively economic assessments are applied in practice. Through a systematic literature review, 14 actual economic assessments are identified and their methods are evaluated based on seven criteria for economic assessments as derived from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The results show that in practice, economic assessments rarely address all criteria. Applying a limited number of criteria reduces the scope and narrows the approach, possibly leading to the underestimation of drought risk reduction approaches' related benefits. Applying the seven criteria in practice will improve the results of economic assessments of drought risk reduction measures, allowing for optimal investment selection. Based on the different criteria, a Framework for Economic Assessments of Drought Risk-Reducing Applications (FEADRRA) is proposed. Applying the criteria of the framework can support decision-makers in drought risk management and in carrying out the most fitting drought interventions. • Criteria of the economics of climate change rarely translate into practice. • Limited criteria included can underestimate risk-reducing measures' attractiveness. • A framework for the economic assessment of drought mitigation measures is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finland updated its Energy and Climate Strategy in late 2016 with the aim of increasing the share of renewable energy sources, increasing energy self-sufficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Concurrently, the issue of generation adequacy has grown more topical, especially since the record-high demand peak in Finland in January 2016. This paper analyses the Finnish energy system in years 2020 and 2030 by using the EnergyPLAN simulation tool to model whether different energy policy scenarios result in a plausible generation inadequacy. Moreover, as the Nordic energy system is so heavily dependent on hydropower production, we model and analyse the impacts of a severe drought on the Finnish energy system. We simulate hydropower availability according to the weather of the worst drought of the last century (in 1939–1942) with Finnish Environment Institute's Watershed Simulation and Forecasting System and we analyse the indirect impacts via reduced availability of electricity imports based on recent realised dry periods. Moreover, we analyse the environmental impacts of hydropower production during the drought and peak demand period and the impacts of climate change on generation adequacy in Finland. The results show that the scenarios of the new Energy and Climate Strategy result in an improved generation adequacy comparing to the current situation. However, a severe drought similar to that experienced in 1940s could cause a serious energy security threat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Residents of arid areas have developed their own adaptive strategies and adaptive capability to cope with an unstable environment that experiences frequent droughts. These strategies and this capability are based on traditional practices that developed from a profound understanding of their environment, but both the strategies and the capability have been affected by institutional change. Specifically, rangeland-use rights in the Alxa Left Banner were privatized in 1996, and the implementation of this policy decreased the ability of local herders to use traditional solutions. In this paper, we describe the change in their adaptive capability after implementation of this policy. Traditionally, local knowledge of the heterogeneity of resources and of key resources based on a deep understanding of the local environment, combined with tight social relationships, let herders use three traditional grazing strategies (seasonal migration, long-distance migration, and raising a diversity of livestock species) to mitigate the impacts of drought. But privatization has nearly eliminated their ability to rely on these traditional strategies and has weakened the forms of social and other capital that supported these strategies and provided a high adaptive capability. We argue that this institutional change has adversely affected traditional practices and undermined the adaptive capability of herders. Consequently, managers of the Alxa Left Banner must find ways to restore the various forms of capital to restore the herders' adaptive capability, particularly given the growing need to account for future climate change. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Drought is a complex natural hazard. It occurs due to a prolonged period of deficient in rainfall amount in a certain region. Unlike other natural hazards, drought hazard has a recurrent occurrence. Therefore, comprehensive drought monitoring is essential for regional climate control and water management authorities. In this paper, we have proposed a new drought indicator: the Seasonally Combinative Regional Drought Indicator (SCRDI). The SCRDI integrates Bayesian networking theory with Standardized Precipitation Temperature Index (SPTI) at varying gauge stations in various month/seasons. Application of SCRDI is based on five gauging stations of Northern Area of Pakistan. We have found that the proposed indicator accounts the effect of climate variation within a specified territory, accurately characterizes drought by capturing seasonal dependencies in geospatial variation scenario, and reduces the large/complex data for future drought monitoring. In summary, the proposed indicator can be used for comprehensive characterization and assessment of drought at a certain region. • Comprehensive drought monitoring. • Save time and resources in the forecasting of future drought. • Systematic way to combine SDI by using a Bayesian network approach. • Easy in the calculation, save time and resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]