Emergency mitigation of drought worldwide: Qualitative descriptive design

Abstract

AbstractA popular idea is that slow‐moving droughts worldwide require long‐lasting emergency mitigation. In this article, we describe our study on how human society could improve its emergency mitigation of droughts for the ultimate objective of emergency management. The research methodology involved a qualitative descriptive design. As a paradigm shift, we initially examined middle‐term emergency mitigation to regional droughts to draw the implementation of long‐term emergency mitigation to regional droughts through three stakeholders (i.e., three analytical units such as international institutions, drought‐prone nations, and drought‐resistant nations). A major finding was that the three stakeholders should transform their current middle‐term drought mitigation strategies into long‐term drought mitigation ones. Based on the effectiveness of long‐term emergency mitigation, they must address multiple alternatives to include the strategic vision, Earth's community approach, social impacts of drought, drought fund initiative, lessons from few national cases (e.g., Australia and UAE), education, and scenario‐based training and could integrate droughts with other issues. It is advised that in the future, researchers will expand their study to encompass all nations worldwide.