Integrated drought management: moving from managing disasters to managing risk in the Mediterranean region

In recent years, concern has grown worldwide that droughts are and will continue to increase in frequency, severity, and duration given changing climatic conditions and documented increases in extreme climate events. This concern is of particular importance to the Mediterranean region, since climate model projections show pronounced warming and decreased precipitation in the coming decades in the region. This narrowing of the gap between water supply and demand will result in a dramatic increase in the drought impacts. Although agriculture is typically the first and most drought-affected sector, many other sectors, including energy production, tourism and recreation, transportation, urban water supply, public health, and the environment, have experienced significant impacts and these will increase at an accelerating rate as a result of further warming and growing competition for finite water resources.