ISDR-Biblio 2: drought, desertification and water scarcity

The second edition of ISDR-Biblio is on drought, desertification and water scarcity. It gives an overview of literature covering drought, desertification and water scarcity. This bibliography is of course not exhaustive.

Drought is one of the major threats among natural hazards to people’s livelihood and socio-economic development. Drought tends to occur less frequently than other hazards. However, when it does occur, it generally affects a broad region for seasons or years at a time. This can result in a larger proportion of the population being affected than when other disasters occur. For example, drought disasters account for less than 20 per cent of all disaster occurrences in Africa, but they account for more than 80 per cent of all people affected by natural disasters. Disasters triggered by prolonged drought in Africa can affect millions of people and contribute to malnutrition, famine and loss of life, whereas droughts in the United States primarily result in economic losses.