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Drought: Past problems and future scenarios

Drought: Past problems and future scenarios
Drought: Past problems and future scenarios
Drought is one of the likely consequences of climate change in many regions of the world. Together with an increased demand for water resources to supply the world's growing population, it represents a potentially disastrous threat to water supplies, agriculture and food production, leading to famine and environmental degradation. Yet predicting drought is fraught with difficulty. The aim of this book is to provide a review of the historical occurrence of global drought, particularly during the 20th century and assess the likely potential changes over the 21st century under climate change. This includes documentation of the occurrence and impacts of major 20th century drought events and analysis of the contributing climatic and environmental factors that act to force, prolong and dissipate drought. Contemporary drought is placed in the context of climate variability since the last ice age, including the many severe and lengthy drought events that contributed to the demise of great civilizations, the disappearance of lakes and rivers, and the conversion of forests to deserts. The authors discuss the developing field of drought monitoring and seasonal forecasting and describe how this is vital for identifying emerging droughts and for providing timely warning to help reduce the impacts. The book provides a broad overview of large scale drought, from historic events such as the US Dust Bowl and African Sahel, and places this in the context of climate variability and change. The work is soundly based on detailed research that has looked at drought occurrence over the 20th century, global drought monitoring, modelling and seasonal prediction, and future projections from climate models.
Routledge
Sheffield, Justin
dd66575b-a4dc-4190-ad95-df2d6aaaaa6b
Wood, Eric F.
8352c1b4-4fd3-42fe-bd23-46619024f1cf
Sheffield, Justin
dd66575b-a4dc-4190-ad95-df2d6aaaaa6b
Wood, Eric F.
8352c1b4-4fd3-42fe-bd23-46619024f1cf

Sheffield, Justin and Wood, Eric F. (2012) Drought: Past problems and future scenarios , vol. 9781849775250, 1st ed. Routledge, 234pp.

Record type: Book

Abstract

Drought is one of the likely consequences of climate change in many regions of the world. Together with an increased demand for water resources to supply the world's growing population, it represents a potentially disastrous threat to water supplies, agriculture and food production, leading to famine and environmental degradation. Yet predicting drought is fraught with difficulty. The aim of this book is to provide a review of the historical occurrence of global drought, particularly during the 20th century and assess the likely potential changes over the 21st century under climate change. This includes documentation of the occurrence and impacts of major 20th century drought events and analysis of the contributing climatic and environmental factors that act to force, prolong and dissipate drought. Contemporary drought is placed in the context of climate variability since the last ice age, including the many severe and lengthy drought events that contributed to the demise of great civilizations, the disappearance of lakes and rivers, and the conversion of forests to deserts. The authors discuss the developing field of drought monitoring and seasonal forecasting and describe how this is vital for identifying emerging droughts and for providing timely warning to help reduce the impacts. The book provides a broad overview of large scale drought, from historic events such as the US Dust Bowl and African Sahel, and places this in the context of climate variability and change. The work is soundly based on detailed research that has looked at drought occurrence over the 20th century, global drought monitoring, modelling and seasonal prediction, and future projections from climate models.

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More information

e-pub ahead of print date: 18 March 2011
Published date: 1 January 2012
Additional Information: Publisher Copyright: © Justin Sheffield and Eric F. Wood 2011.

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 480750
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/480750
PURE UUID: 1f3a21fb-7ee9-4d42-adae-6bd74b9df26f
ORCID for Justin Sheffield: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-2400-0630

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Date deposited: 09 Aug 2023 17:08
Last modified: 06 Jun 2024 01:54

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Author: Eric F. Wood

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