Abstract
Abstract. Drought affects the European Alpine mountain region, despite a humid climate. Droughts' damaging character in the past and increasing probability in future projections call for an understanding of drought impacts in the mountain regions. The European Drought Impact report Inventory (EDII) collects text reports on negative drought impacts. This study presents a considerably updated EDII focusing on the Alpine region. This first version release of an Alpine Drought Impact report Inventory (EDIIALPS) classifies impact reports into categories covering various affected sectors and enables comparisons of the drought impact characteristics. We analysed the distribution of reported impacts on the spatial, temporal and seasonal scale and by drought type for soil moisture drought and hydrological drought. For the spatial analysis, we compared the impact data located in the Alpine region to the whole of Europe. Furthermore, we compared impact data between different climatic and altitudinal domains (the northern region vs. the southern region and the pre-Alpine region vs. the high-altitude region) and between the Alpine countries. Compared to the whole of Europe, in the Alpine region agriculture and livestock farming impacts are even more frequently reported, especially in the southern region. Public water supply is the second most relevant sector but overall less prominent compared to Europe, especially in spring when snowmelt mitigates water shortages. Impacts occur mostly in summer and early autumn, with a delay between those impacts initiated by soil moisture and those initiated by hydrological drought. The high-altitude region shows this delay the strongest. From 1975 to 2020, the number of archived reports increases, with substantially more impacts noted during the drought events of 1976, 2003, 2015 and 2018. Moreover, reported impacts diversify from agricultural dominance to multi-faceted impact types covering forestry, water quality, industry and so forth. Though EDIIALPS is biased by reporting behaviour, the region-specific results of negative drought impacts across the water-rich European mountain region demonstrate the need to move from emergency response to prevention and preparedness actions. These may be guided by EDIIALPS' insights to regional patterns, seasons and drought types.
Highlights
Droughts are natural hazards, which can cause widespread and severe impacts on the environment and societies
Though EDIIALPS is biased by reporting behaviour, the region-specific results of negative drought impacts across the water-rich European mountain region demonstrate the need to move from emergency response to prevention and preparedness actions
In the following the term “domains” includes the pre-Alpine region, high-altitude region, southern region, and northern region, as well as the Alpine Space covered by the EDIIALPS and Europe covered by the EDIIEU and, differs from smaller spatial units
Summary
Droughts are natural hazards, which can cause widespread and severe impacts on the environment and societies. The predicted increase in drought frequency, duration and extent stresses the relevance of systematic analysis of drought impacts and their cascading effects in mountainous areas This is relevant within the Mediterranean climate in the southern parts of the Alpine regions, where recent drought events triggered water disputes and the spread of multiple impacts (Tramblay et al, 2020). To the best of our knowledge, only the expert paper by the Water Management in the Alps Platform (Water Management in the Alps Platform of the Alpine Convention, 2018) is a transnational study focusing on drought impacts in the Alpine region presenting experiences, approaches and common challenges for water management by stakeholders. This expert paper emphasises the need to move from emergency to preparedness actions, which is essential for the Alpine-wide research on past drought and potential future impacts
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