An Optimisation Framework for Planning Drought Management Measures

Abstract

Droughts trigger various pervasive effects on society, the environment and the economy. Drought-associated societal impacts include food insecurity, malnutrition, chronic respiratory illnesses, and increased social conflict (UNDRR, 2021). Regarding environmental damage, droughts can lead to overexploitation of forests, ponds, riverbanks and groundwater and biodiversity loss (FAO, 2017b; UNDRR, 2021). For the economy, it is estimated that droughts cause 84% of the agriculture sector’s total economic damage and losses (FAO, 2015, 2020) and bring critical losses to economic sectors such as power generation, commercial shipping and tourism (UNDRR, 2021; Van Vliet et al., 2016)....