Drought Mitigation Measures: A Comprehensive Framework

Drought mitigation measures include a large number of actions, which can be grouped into three broad categories: supply-increase, demand reduction, and drought impact minimisation. Each category affects the physical, economic and societal impacts of drought in different ways. In this paper the necessity of moving from a reactive approach to a proactive approach is discussed. The latter approach requires advance preparation of both long-term actions oriented to reduce vulnerability of water supply systems, and short-term actions to be taken during the drought period. The role of a drought monitoring system and an appropriate institutional framework for effective drought management is also highlighted. The use of multicriteria methods to compare different drought mitigation measures and choose the appropriate combination of actions is recommended.