Drought Risk Assessment and Management

The paper presents an overview of issues related to the estimation of drought severity, the vulnerability of affected systems towards the drought hazards, the assessment of system drought risk and the required preparedness planning against droughts. To face these recurrent and temporary phenomena, a proactive approach is promoted based on technocratic support, systematic organisational and institutional structure and active public participation. Special emphasis is given to the simple and practical approaches, though scientifically sound, for the characterisation of drought episodes and the assessment of drought risk affected systems.