Managing Water For Drought

Droughts and their management are a serious challenge to water resource professionals. While droughts predominate in arid regions, their frequency and severity in more temperate regions with more abundant rainfall have been on the rise. Drought Management and Planning for Water Resources provides an essential collection of planning and manag

Describes methods for improving water mgmt. during drought developed during a 4-year study. The methods were tested & refined in 4 filed studies in different parts of the country, in which teams of water managers & users worked together to reduce drought impacts. This report explains the procedure for coop. Fed.-state Drought Preparedness Studies, to indicate how these studies relate to the longstanding principles & guidance for Fed. water resources investigations, & to indicate the means of implementing conclusions arrived at in any given region. Tables.

Indigenous Water and Drought Management in a Changing World presents a series of global case studies that examine how different Indigenous groups are dealing with various water management challenges and finding creative and culturally specific ways of developing solutions to these challenges. With contributions from Indigenous and non-Indigenous academics, scientists, and water management experts, this volume provides an overview of key water management challenges specific to Indigenous peoples, proposes possible policy solutions both at the international and national levels, and outlines culturally relevant tools for assessing vulnerability and building capacity. In recent decades, global climate change (particularly drought) has brought about additional water management challenges, especially in drought-prone regions where increasing average temperatures and diminishing precipitation are leading to water crises. Because their livelihoods are often dependent on the land and water, Indigenous groups native to those regions have direct insights into the localized impacts of global environmental change, and are increasingly developing their own adaptation and mitigation strategies and solutions based on local Indigenous knowledge (IK). Many Indigenous groups around the globe are also faced with mounting pressure from extractive industries like mining and forestry, which further threaten their water resources. The various cases presented in Indigenous Water and Drought Management in a Changing World provide much-needed insights into the particular issues faced by Indigenous peoples in preserving their water resources, as well as actionable information that can inform future scientific research and policymaking aimed at developing more integrated, region-specific, and culturally relevant solutions to these critical challenges. Includes diverse case studies from around the world Provides cutting-edge perspectives about Indigenous peoples’ water management issues and IK-based solutions Presents maps for most case studies along with a summary box to conclude each chapter

Droughts and their management are a serious challenge to water resource professionals. While droughts predominate in arid regions, their frequency and severity in more temperate regions with more abundant rainfall have been on the rise. Drought Management and Planning for Water Resources provides an essential collection of planning and manag

Global change possesses serious challenges for water managers and scientists. In mountain areas, where water supplies for half of the world population originate, climate and hydrologic models are still subject to considerable uncertainty. And yet, critical decisions have to be taken to ensure adequate and safe water supplies to billions of people, millions of farmers and industries, without further deteriorating rivers and water bodies. While global warming is known to cause glaciers’ retreat and reduced snow packs around the world, it is not clear that mountain discharge will be lower. What is widely recognised is that water management must be adapted to accommodate significant regime changes. However, this inevitably involves managing transboundary rivers, adding further complexity to putting principles in practice. This book takes global warming and the importance of mountain areas in world water resources as the starting point. First, it provides detailed reviews of the processes going on in several rivers systems and world regions in Europe (Rhône and Ebro), North America (Canadian Rockies, Western US and Mexico), the Middle East (Jordan), Africa (Tunisia, Kenya and South Africa). These contexts provide case studies and examples that show the difficulties and potential for adaptation to global change. Land-use, economics, numerous modeling approaches are some of the cross-cutting issues covered in the chapters. The volume also includes the views of water practitioners, with two chapters authored by members of the US-Canada International Joint Commission, an industrialist from Western Canada and an environmental leader in Spain. By combining a rich set of contexts and approaches, the volume succeeds in offering a view of the global challenges faced by water agencies, international donors and researchers around the world. A case is made in some chapters to seek adaptive strategies rather than trying to reduce or control resources variability. This requires factoring in land-use, social and economic aspects, especially in developing countries. Another conclusion is that complex problems can and must be posed and negotiated with the help of models, mapping techniques and science-based facts. However complex these may be, there are ways to translate them to easily interpretable and visualisations of alternative scenarios and courses of action. This book provides numerous examples of the potential of such approaches to draft environmental programmes solve transboundary disputes and reduce the economic consequences of droughts and climate instability.

Addresses the three pillars of an integrated approach to drought risk reduction: monitoring and early warning and information delivery systems; vulnerability and impact assessment; and mitigation and response. Provides sound analyses of the growing challenges presented by drought events and the shortcomings and opportunities for drought policy and preparedness in the context of water-related stresses across many jurisdictions Discusses in-depth case studies from researchers and practitioners dealing with drought and water-sensitive issues at local, national, and global scales. Presents the new science, theory and state-of the-art methods that have emerged throughout the world since the publication of the first edition.