Abstract
Climate change is anticipated to exacerbate the frequency, the intensity, and the duration of droughts, especially in Mediterranean countries. This might lead to more serious water scarcity episodes and fierce competition among water users. Are we really prepared to deal efficiently with droughts and water scarcity events? This paper sheds light on this question by reviewing the evolution of European drought management planning policy, recently developed scientific and technical advances, technical guidance documents, and an extensive number of journal papers. More specifically, Spain presents an ideal context to assess how drought risk has been historically addressed because this country has periodically suffered the impacts of intense droughts and water scarcity episodes, and has developed a long track record in water legislation, hydrological planning, and drought risk management strategies. The most recent Drought Management Plans (DMPs) were approved in December 2018. These include an innovative common diagnosis system that distinguishes droughts and water scarcity situations in terms of indicators, triggers, phases, and actions. We can conclude that DMP should be a live and active document able to integrate updated knowledge. The DMP needs also to set out a clear strategy in terms of water use priorities, drought monitoring systems, and measures in each river basin in order to avoid generalist approaches and possible misinterpretation of the DMP that could lead to increase existing and future conflicts.
Highlights
Worldwide, we are already experiencing the impacts of climate change such as the increase in frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, heat waves, wildfires, rising sea levels, and biodiversity loss
This paper provides a review on the evolution of European drought management planning policy, recently developed scientific and technical advances, technical guidance documents, and an extensive number of journal papers
That approach usually failed in achieving the most sustainable and cost-efficient solutions in the long-term. This led to a paradigm shift towards applying drought risk-reduction management strategies that are reflected in the academic work, political agenda, and policy-making process
Summary
We are already experiencing the impacts of climate change such as the increase in frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, heat waves, wildfires, rising sea levels, and biodiversity loss. Whilst one of the purposes of the WFD is the mitigation of drought impacts (Art. (e)), droughts are only succinctly dealt with within the WFD, and the development of Drought Management Plans (DMPs) is not compulsory Another key milestone in terms of European drought-risk management was set by the 2007 EC Communication “Addressing the Challenge of Water Scarcity and Droughts in the European Union” and the publication of the technical guidance “Drought Management Plan Report Including Agricultural, Drought Indicators and Climate Change Aspects” [9]. This first one presented an initial set of seven policy instruments for tackling water scarcity and drought issues at European, national and regional levels to address and mitigate water scarcity and droughts. This has shown the significant strides made by all River Basin Authorities (RBA) in Spain towards the harmonization of technical procedures across all the basins and an effective intergovernmental co-ordination between all the organizations and processes involved at the political, technical, and institutional levels
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