Drought hazards and stakeholder perception: Unraveling the interlinkages between drought severity, perceived impacts, preparedness and management

Abstract

The future risk for droughts and water shortages calls for substantial efforts by authorities to adapt at local levels. Understanding their perception of drought hazards, risk and vulnerability can help to identify drivers of and barriers to drought risk planning and management in a changing climate at the local level. We present a novel interdisciplinary drought case study in a Nordic country that integrates soft data from a nation-wide survey among more than 100 local practitioners and hard data based on hydrological measurements to provide a holistic assessment of the links between drought severity and the perceived levels of drought severity, impacts, preparedness and management for two consecutive drought events. We highlight challenges for drought risk planning and management in a changing climate at the local level and elaborate on how improved understanding of local practitioners to plan for climate change adaptation can be achieved.