Assessment of Vulnerability to Drought Disaster in Agricultural Reservoirs in South Korea

Young-Sik Mun,Na-Kyoung Bang,Taegon Kim,Min-Gi Jeon,Won-Ho Nam

doi:10.3390/atmos11111244

Young-Sik Mun, Na-Kyoung Bang + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11111244

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Journal: Atmosphere	Publication Date: Nov 18, 2020
Citations: 12	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Hankyong National University, University of Minnesota

Abstract

Drought is a natural disaster affecting agriculture worldwide. Drought mitigation and proactive response require a comprehensive vulnerability mapping approach considering various factors. This study investigates the vulnerability to agricultural drought in South Korea based on exposure, sensitivity, and adaptability. The evaluation of agricultural drought factors yielded 14 items, which are categorized into meteorological, agricultural reservoir, social, and adaptability factors. Each item is assigned a weight using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). We analyzed vulnerability to drought disaster in agricultural reservoirs, and generated vulnerability maps by applying the vulnerability framework for climate change. The generated map was divided into four categories based on drought vulnerability: A (Very high), B (High), C (Moderate), and D (Low). The weights for the meteorological (0.498), agricultural reservoir (0.286), social (0.166), and adaptability (0.05) factors were obtained using AHP. The rating frequencies were 41.91%, 19.76%, 9.58%, and 5.39% for A, B, C, and D, respectively. The western region is extremely vulnerable to meteorological and agricultural reservoir factors, whereas the eastern region is more vulnerable to adaptability. The results of this study visually represent agricultural drought and can be used for evaluating regional drought vulnerability for assisting preemptive drought responses to identify and support drought-prone areas.

Highlights

Precipitation patterns are expected to change worldwide due to climate change, and the magnitude and frequency of droughts have been increasing due to the lack of precipitation [1]
Agricultural drought vulnerability was evaluated in 167 si/guns in South Korea, and island regions that are greatly affected by climate were excluded
The items selected for the assessment of vulnerability to paddy agricultural drought were three meteorological items, six agricultural reservoir items, three social items, and two adaptability items from 2015 to 2018

Summary

Introduction

Precipitation patterns are expected to change worldwide due to climate change, and the magnitude and frequency of droughts have been increasing due to the lack of precipitation [1]. Drought is a globally damaging disaster that has economic and social effects, and is classified into four main types according to duration, scope, and frequency [2,3,4]. Droughts are commonly classified as meteorological, hydrological, agricultural, and socio-economic types. Agricultural drought is defined as the occurrence of damage to crops due to the lack of soil moisture and agricultural reservoir water, directly affecting crop growth and yield [5,6,7]. According to a recent drought-related study, the intensity and frequency of droughts are expected to increase due to climate change [8,9,10].

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