Assessing agricultural drought management strategies in the Northern Murray–Darling Basin

In recent years, the adverse effects of drought have been experienced and perceived more severely and frequently all over Europe. These impacts are a result of the drought hazard and the socio-economic and ecological vulnerability. Due to the heterogeneity of Europe&#8217;s hydro-climatology and its cultural, political, social and economic diversity , the socio-economic and ecological impacts vary not only with respect to the extent, duration and severity of the drought, but also with the characteristics of affected societies, economic sectors and ecosystems.&#160;The lack&#160; of understanding the spatio-temporal differences in the drivers of drought risk hinders the successful mitigation of future impacts, and the design of suitable reactive and proactive drought action plans. Therefore, this study describes the European drought events of 2018 and 2019 beyond the hazard. The hypothesis to be proven is that similar hazard conditions result in different impacts due to national and sub-national differences in drought vulnerability, perception and drought-risk management. Based on research in 35 European countries, comparable national datasets on drought management and perception are established. For each of these countries, a uniform questionnaire was distributed to water management-related stakeholders at different administrative levels. A major focus of the questions was the perception and impacts of the recent droughts and current management strategies on a national and sub-national scale. The results of the questionnaires are also compared to country-scale profiles of past drought events for different drought types, i.e. meteorological, soil moisture, hydrological and vegetation drought, which were established based on information derived from the European Drought Observatory indicator system.The results highlight a large diversity in the national perception of drought as a natural hazard and its impacts; but also a different spatial extent of 2018/2019 drought events At the same time,&#160; existing drought management strategies are shown to increase national and sub-national resilience. The study, therefore, calls for international exchange and mutual learning to improve national and international drought governance and management.

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Salinity Management in the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia

Water ◽

10.3390/w12061829 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (6) ◽

pp. 1829 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Barry Hart ◽

Glen Walker ◽

Asitha Katupitiya ◽

Jane Doolan

Keyword(s):

Land Surface ◽

Success Factors ◽

Management Strategies ◽

Active Management ◽

Management Approach ◽

Governance System ◽

European Settlement ◽

Murray Darling Basin ◽

The Future ◽

Salinity Management

The southern Murray–Darling Basin (MDB) is particularly vulnerable to salinity problems. Much of the Basin’s landscape and underlying groundwater is naturally saline with groundwater not being suitable for human or irrigation use. Since European settlement in the early 1800s, two actions—the clearance of deep-rooted native vegetation for dryland agriculture and the development of irrigation systems on the Riverine Plains and Mallee region—have resulted in more water now entering the groundwater systems, resulting in mobilization of the salt to the land surface and to rivers. While salinity has been a known issue since the 1960s, it was only in the mid-1980s that was recognized as one of the most significant environmental and economic challenges facing the MDB. Concerted and cooperative action since 1988 by the Commonwealth and Basin state governments under a salinity management approach implemented over the past 30 years has resulted in salinity now being largely under control, but still requiring on-going active management into the future. The approach has involved the development of three consecutive salinity strategies governing actions from 1988 to 2000, from 2001 to 2015, and the most recent from 2016 to 2030. The basis of the approach and all three strategies is an innovative, world-leading salinity management framework consisting of: An agreed salinity target; joint works and measures to reduce salt entering the rivers; and an agreed accountability and governance system consisting of a system of salinity credits to offset debits, a robust and agreed method to quantify the credits and debits, and a salinity register to keep track of credits and debits. This paper first provides background to the salinity issue in the MDB, then reviews the three salinity management strategies, the various actions that have been implemented through these strategies to control salinity, and the role of the recent Basin Plan in salinity management. We then discuss the future of salinity in the MDB given that climate change is forecast to lead to a hotter, drier and more variable climate (particularly more frequent droughts), and that increased salt loads to the River Murray are predicted to come from the lower reaches of the Mallee region. Finally, we identify the key success factors of the program.

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Challenges for the Integration of Water Resource and Drought-Risk Management in Spain

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11020308 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 308 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Jesús Vargas ◽

Pilar Paneque

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Water Resources ◽

Water Resource ◽

Water Resources Management ◽

Management Strategies ◽

Drought Risk ◽

Drought Management ◽

Intergovernmental Panel ◽

Resources Management ◽

Increased Risk

Droughts are risks characterized by their complexity, uncertainty, and a series of other features, which differentiate them from other natural disasters and affect the strategies designed to manage them. These characteristics highlight the close relationship between drought management and water resources management. The following hypothesis is raised in this study—unsatisfactory integration of a drought-risk and water resources management strategies, increases the vulnerability to drought. To corroborate this hypothesis, the Spanish case was analyzed, where droughts are a recurrent phenomenon, due to the Mediterranean climate. Starting from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) framework, which has been proposed to characterize vulnerability as a function of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity, this study analyzed the vulnerability in the Spanish River Basin Districts, through—(i) the integration of the predictable effects of climate change and the increased risk of exposure in hydrologic planning; (ii) the pressure on water resources that determines the sensitivity of the systems; and (iii) the development and implementation of drought management plans as a fundamental tool, in order to adapt before these events occur. The results showed that despite important advances in the process of conceiving and managing droughts, in Spain, there are still important gaps for an adequate integration of droughts risk into the water resource strategies. Therefore, despite the improvements, drought-risk vulnerability of the systems remained high.

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Irrigator and Environmental Water Management Adaptation to Climate Change and Water Reallocation in the Murray–Darling Basin

Water Economics and Policy ◽

10.1142/s2382624x15500095 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 01 (03) ◽

pp. 1550009 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Mac Kirby ◽

Jeff Connor ◽

Mobin-ud Din Ahmad ◽

Lei Gao ◽

Mohammed Mainuddin

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Water Management ◽

Management Strategies ◽

Environmental Water ◽

Adaptation Strategy ◽

Net Income ◽

Adaptation To Climate Change ◽

Murray Darling Basin ◽

Gross Income ◽

The Impact

In an earlier paper (Kirby et al. 2014a), we showed that climate change and a new policy which reallocates water to the environment will impact both the flow of water and the income derived from irrigation in the Murray–Darling Basin. Here, we extend the analysis to consider irrigator and environmental water management strategies to adapt to these new circumstances. Using an integrated hydrology-economics model, we examine a range of strategies and their impact on flows and the gross income of irrigation. We show that the adaptation strategies provide a range of flow and economic outcomes in the Basin. Several strategies offer significant scope to enhance flows without large adverse impacts on the gross income of irrigation overall. Some environmental water management strategies enhance flows in the Murray part of the basin even under the drying influence of a projected median climate change. Irrigator strategies that include carryover of water in storage from one year to the next provide for lesser year to year variability in gross income and may be regarded as more advantageous in providing security against droughts. Flows and the gross income of low value irrigation industries strategies are sensitive to climate change, irrespective of adaptation strategy. Should a projected dry extreme climate change be realized, no strategy can prevent a large reduction in flows and also in gross income, particularly of low value irrigation industries. Nevertheless, environmental water management strategies mitigate the impact on flows, and in some cases may also help mitigate the impacts on gross income. High value irrigation industries are less affected (in terms of gross income, though net income will reduce because of rising water prices) by projected climate change, consistent with observation in the recent long term drought.

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Agricultural drought : Assessment & monitoring

MAUSAM ◽

10.54302/mausam.v67i1.1155 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 67 (1) ◽

pp. 131-142

Author(s):

M. V. R. SESHA SAI ◽

C. S. MURTHY ◽

K. CHANDRASEKAR ◽

A. T. JEYASEELAN ◽

P. G. DIWAKAR ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Satellite Remote Sensing ◽

Management Strategy ◽

Agricultural Drought ◽

Spatial Extent ◽

Drought Management ◽

Extraction Techniques ◽

Drought Assessment ◽

Rational Decision Making ◽

Related Information ◽

Adverse Impacts

Drought is a creeping natural disaster with long lasting effects on ecology as well as economy. Monitoring and assessment of drought is a very critical component of the drought management strategy aimed at mitigation of its adverse impacts. Spatial extent, intensity and duration of drought related information is essentially needed for taking the choicest rational decision making in the field of agriculture. Satellite remote sensing enables deriving indicators that explain the prevalence, severity, persistence and spatial extent of the area affected by drought. New satellite missions coupled with novel information extraction techniques are opening new vistas towards monitoring and assessment of drought. Aspects related to agricultural drought are discussed in this paper.

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Summary: Some Key Drought Management Strategies and Tactics

Drought Management on Farmland - Water Science and Technology Library ◽

10.1007/978-94-015-9562-9_31 ◽

2000 ◽

pp. 341-347

Author(s):

J. S. Whitmore

Keyword(s):

Management Strategies ◽

Drought Management

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AGRICULTURAL DROUGHT MANAGEMENT FOR SUSTAINED AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT

Droughts ◽

10.4324/9781315830896-103 ◽

2016 ◽

pp. 494-506

Keyword(s):

Agricultural Development ◽

Agricultural Drought ◽

Drought Management

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How useful are CORDEX products for the assessment of future agricultural drought propensity across the Indian subcontinent?

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-15885 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Prabal Das ◽

Kironmala Chanda ◽

Rajib Maity

Keyword(s):

Soil Moisture ◽

Water Resources ◽

Indian Subcontinent ◽

Regional Climate ◽

Agricultural Drought ◽

Historical Period ◽

Drought Management ◽

Future Evolution ◽

Failure State ◽

The Future

AbstractThis study aims to evaluate the future evolution of agricultural drought propensity across the Indian subcontinent through Drought Management Index (DMI), a probabilistic measure based on the concept of Reliability-Resilience-Vulnerability (RRV) of soil moisture series at a location/region (Chanda et al., 2014; Chanda and Maity, 2017). In this study, monthly gridded soil moisture products from the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) framework are used after suitable bias correction, if needed. In the realm of RRV analysis, the fall of soil moisture below a threshold (e.g., Permanent Wilting Point, PWP) is considered as the &#8216;failure state&#8217;. The joint distribution of resilience (the ability of the soil moisture system to recover from a failure state) and vulnerability (severity of the deficit in soil moisture during a failure state) of soil moisture series is modelled through copulas (Nelsen, 2006; Maity, 2018) to develop the DMI.&#160; The results of this study help to assess the evolution of agricultural drought propensity, in terms of DMI, in the near (2011-2040), intermediate (2041-2070) and far future (2071-2099). The findings from multiple emission pathways, designated as Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs), are compared against each other during the future period and also against the historical period. As an outcome of the study, specific regions across the Indian mainland are identified that need immediate attention for managing sustainable agricultural and allied activities in future.Keywords: Drought Management Index (DMI), soil moisture, future drought propensity, Reliability-Resilience-Vulnerability (RRV), CORDEX&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;References Chanda, K., Maity, R., Sharma, A., and Mehrotra, R. (2014). Spatiotemporal variation of long-term drought propensity through reliability-resilience-vulnerability based Drought Management Index, Water Resources Research, 50(10), 7662-7676.Chanda, K., and Maity, R. (2017). Assessment of Trend in Global Drought Propensity in the Twenty-First Century Using Drought Management Index, Water Resources Management, 31(4), 1209-1225.Maity, R. (2018). Statistical Methods in Hydrology and Hydroclimatology. Springer.Nelsen, R. B. (2007). An introduction to copulas. Springer Science & Business Media.

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