This blog is all about Types, Causes, Effects and Mitigation Measures of Drought. It explains the effects of Droughts on Environment and Biodiversity. It also explains Sustainable Strategies to prevent Droughts or to reduce its extent.
What is Drought?
A drought is a period of dried-than-normal conditions. It is a prolonged dry period in the natural climate change that occurs on the Earth.
Drought is the Climatic condition that has extreme effects on the dry lands. This mostly occurs because of less or no precipitation in dry areas. Climate change can be in the form of extreme heating and extreme cooling. While drought is the condition of extreme conditions of dryness in an area. When a land is already dry, the excessive dryness results in drought. This condition can become dangerous in case of Food Production and yield. Dry land does not support food production, so the land area facing drought conditions can become out of food in few months or a year. This blog is all about Types, Effects and Mitigation Measures of Drought.
What are the Main Types of Drought?
Droughts means extra dry Climatic Conditions in a Geographical Area. Droughts are not the same in every area. They can be characterized in the following types:
Meteorological Droughts:
This kind of droughts depends upon the weather patterns by the longer duration of dry periods naturally. The degree of dryness in these drought is not ordinary and is of extreme level. These droughts works as a warming for farmers to take good care of their irrigation practices and to prepare for worse drought conditions. This is mainly indicated by below-average precipitation.
Agricultural Droughts:
Agricultural droughts mainly effects the food production and other agricultural practices of an area. These droughts contains characteristics of Meteorological and Hydrological Droughts. These droughts cause the Food insecurity of the land area. This mainly impact the Food supply and Farming Practices of the respective area. These droughts leads to the transfer of food from other areas.
Hydrological Droughts:
Hydrological droughts are related to the Water Crisis. These droughts occur when the groundwater level is below average. The groundwater is restored by the Precipitation of an area. This type of droughts occurs because of shortages in Precipitation or Rainfall. Hydrological droughts are the responsibility of the Water managers need to restrict water use in towns and cities.
Socio-economic Droughts:
Socio-economic droughts refers to the droughts related to Economic Development. It mainly disrupt the supply and demand of Economic Goods for the population of an area. The main reason behind it is when the demand of Economic goods exceeds due to weather-related shortfall in water supply. These contains the conditions of all types of droughts.
Ecological Droughts:
Ecological droughts have impacts on a bigger level. These droughts occurs when the water deficit significantly effect ecosystem, leading to reduce plant growth, increased risks of wildfires, and disruption of Wildlife Habitats. This high effect the animals, forests, and other Biodiversity hotspots by impacting the Ecosystem services provided by the Ecological processes of the Earth.
Flash Droughts:
A flash drought is a sudden dry spell that develops rapidly and cause a lot of harm to the environment also the population. This type of drought takes account within weeks. The main reasons behind these dry-spells is rising of global temperature, heat domes, soil moisture feedback loop etc. These droughts are unpredictable and can cause greater damage than normal droughts.
Mega-droughts:
Mega-droughts are extremely long droughts that may last for over 20+ years. These have the power to reshape landscapes, can collapse civilization and may also threaten modern water security. It is often triggered by extreme and unusual changes in natural cycles. The water resources dry up permanently in this situation. Southwestern US is facing 23 year long mega-drought.
These are the main types of Droughts. All of these have different characteristics, impacts and reason of occurrence. This blog is all about Types, Effects and Mitigation Measures of Drought.
What are the Natural Causes of Drought?
Droughts can occur because of few Natural Causes and some Anthropogenic Causes. Following are some of the Natural Causes of Droughts:
Weather Patterns:
Weather patterns are not under human’s control. These can be completely predictable or entirely unpredictable and extreme in nature. Sometimes we have extended periods of rainfall that it cause the risk of Floods. But sometimes there is less precipitation in an area that makes it dry and it becomes more dry with passing time because of Water Shortage. This condition leads to drought. This is one the natural causes of Drought.
Variation in Ocean Temperature:
We already know that, the oceans covers over 70% of the area of the Earth. Any Slight variation in Oceans leads to significant changes in Climatic Conditions and temperature of the Earth. Ocean Temperature drive many of the Climatic activities on Earth. They are also a significant cause of Drought. When ocean temperature of a region is high and the winds are hot, then there is more chances of Drought in the nearby land areas. This is a natural cause of Drought and triggers the Drought conditions on a great level.
Jet Stream:
Jet streams are fast flowing narrow air currents that continuously flow into the atmosphere. These are the blends of strong winds in upper atmosphere. They mostly occur around 30,000 feet in elevation. They travel to westerly direction several miles above the Earth’s surface. These play a very important role in causing droughts naturally. The main reason behind causing of droughts through jet streams is the travelling of dry winds for extended periods in the same region. Dry winds increase the temperature of the region and accelerate evaporation to make it more drier with passing time.
Disturbance in Water Cycle:
Water cycle refers to the processes involved in the transfer of water from one component of the environment to another. It contains the natural processes of recycling and redistribution of water into the environment. These processes includes condensation, evaporation, precipitation and runoff. When there are extreme weather patterns that give rise to rapid evaporation and in return there is no or less rainfall in an area, it leads to droughts. We can also say when the water consumption is increased due to heat waves and the water table is lowered, it is also a cause of drought in the near future. This is why Water cycle may cause droughts.
These are the most Significant Natural Causes of Droughts in any region of the Earth. These Natural Causes are not under control because they are naturally occurring variations in Earth’s systems. This blog contains Types, Causes, Effects and Mitigation Measures of Drought.
What are the Human-driven Causes of Drought?
Some of the potential causes of Drought are completely human-driven. These causes results from human activities and artificial processes going on on the Earth. Following are some of the Anthropogenic Causes of Drought:
Deforestation and Land Degradation:
Deforestation is the process of cutting down of the trees for the benefit of humans, i.e. for Urbanization, Road Construction or to get advantage from Forest resources. The cutting of forests have many negative Environmental Impacts such as Global Warming, Air Pollution, Nutrient loss, including Droughts. It is a cause of droughts because it disturbs vegetation and nutrient balance of the forested areas. This cause loss of fertility of the soil and also nutrient loss in the region. It also accelerates Soil Erosion that cause land degradation.
Climate Change and Global Warming:
In the core, Climate Change is a natural process but human activities are making it extreme with passing time. The most dangerous Climate Change Impact is Global Warming that is harming the Earth in full potential. Global Warming cause the Biodiversity loss and destruction of life on Earth. This phenomena drives drought in a way by enhancing the dryness and increasing the temperature of a region. This accelerates the Nutrient loss, Excessive Evaporation, and eventually leads to Droughts.
Intensive Farming:
Intensive Farming is the technique of farming that includes excessive use of pesticides and fertilizers in order to increase the yield to meet the needs of food for the existing population. This technique is very effective for increasing the yield, but it has multiple Environmental impacts. These impacts include loss of natural fertility and productivity of the fertile land and it also leads to Desertification. Desertification is the conversion of forested land into a desert, this is same condition as drought.
Excessive Irrigation:
Irrigation is the process of providing water to the agricultural and farming sites. The delivering of irrigation water should be sufficient for the crops and fields. Some of the conventional techniques of irrigation use a large amount of water and most of it is wasted. The excessive irrigation or excessive use of water for irrigation purposes will lead to Water Scarcity because water will be insufficient for the population. This will expose us to the situation of Drought because of insufficient water supply.
These are few Human-driven causes of Drought. Most of the time drought occurs because of Anthropogenic Activities and depletion of Natural Resources in the regions of the Earth. This blog contains Types, Causes, Effects and Mitigation Measures of Droughts.
What are the Effects of Drought on the Environment?
There are many negative effects of Drought on the Environment. Following are some of the effects of Droughts on the Environment.
- Drought can cause loss of vegetation due to extreme dryness in a region.
- These can also lead to extreme wildfires naturally because of extreme dry climate.
- Droughts are the main cause loss of vegetation in the drought regions.
- Droughts destroy the vegetation and forests so they may lead to Extreme Air Pollution.
- This directly effects to Groundwater level and cause depletion of water resources in relative areas.
- Droughts are the significant reason of Habitat loss for the Biodiversity.
These are some of the Effects of Drought on the Environment. All of these effects are extremely harmful for the Environmental Conditions and also contributes in accelerating Environmental Problems on Earth. This blog is about Types, Causes, Effects and Mitigation Measures of Drought.
What are the Effects of Drought on Biodiversity?
Drought is very dangerous for Biodiversity in many ways. Some of the harmful effects of Drought on Biodiversity:
Food Insecurity:
As drought does not let the food grow in the driest conditions. These area may face Food Insecurity for the Humans and Animals. This condition is equally difficult for the Animals and Humans because food is the fundamental need for all types of Biodiversity.
Water Shortage:
Along with the issue of Food Insecurity drought also cause Water Shortage and Water Scarcity. It cause the drying of existing freshwater resources such as lakes, rivers, ponds etc. This disturbs the living of Aquatic species and even the species living on land that are dependent on water resources.
Habitat Loss:
Drought also cause destruction of Habitat that results in Habitat Loss of the species. It may also damage plants and vegetation in the drought prone area. This leaves the animals open in the Environment exposed to Environmental and Physical Hazards. This results in Biodiversity loss.
Dryness:
This also leads to Global Warming and extreme hot temperature that effects the health and hydration of all the types of Biodiversity living in that area. The Biodiversity may get different diseases and infections and face life loss at a great level. The dry and hot climate is difficult to survive for every living thing.
Biodiversity face many problems in living, getting nutrition and surviving in the drought facing areas. This blog contains information about Types, Effects and Mitigation Measures of Drought.
What are some Case Studies of Droughts?
Following are some of the historic Case studies of Droughts in the world:
California Drought:
California, a state in US has always been prone to droughts. The recent drought seen in here, started from water year 1st Oct, 2024. It has expanded and increased the intensity of droughts in the nearby regions including central and southern California and Nevada.
New Jersey Drought:
Droughts are common in New Jersey because there is abnormal dryness in this region. The recent drought recorded in this area started from December, 2022. At that time, the droughts were recorded in a part of every country in the state.
Australia Drought:
South-eastern Australia has been facing drought of about 23 years. This drought continued between the years 1788 and 1860. This region of the world has also faced major droughts during the years 1860 to 2000. It is considered as a dry country.
Somalia and Ethiopia:
People are facing extreme droughts from last three years (2020 to 2022), they are facing miserable Food insecurity and other extreme impacts of droughts. These droughts are forcing entire communities for displacement to other regions.
Pakistan and India:
As both of these are fertile lands, overuse of water for irrigation and overconsumption of water due to high temperature, leads to seasonal droughts. This is directly effecting the crop yield and ground-water table is lowering with every passing year.
These are some of the important Case Studies about Droughts.
What are the Mitigation Measures for Drought?
Drought can be taken in control with few Sustainable ways to prevent the condition of Drought in an area. These will help us to prevent drought or reduce its intensity by different aspects. Following are some control measures for drought:
Rainwater Harvesting:
The people living in dry regions should consider rainwater harvesting as an integral part of their life. The stored water is then used in the emergency situations and in droughts. It avoids water shortage and at least you have water for drinking and irrigation.
Early Warning Systems for Drought:
We should be advance in predicting the environmental catastrophes before damage. The tracking systems for food security and water table can help us to take mitigating measures and precautions to avoid extreme impacts of droughts in certain regions. Or may be early restoration of natural systems may prevent it permanently. Drought monitor is a powerful system in predicting these.
Avoid Intensive Farming:
Intensive Farming is the biggest reason behind Drought and Desertification. When excessive inorganic substances are delivered to the land, the land become less fertile and less productive. And within few years it may become barren and result in Drought.
Use Efficient Irrigation Methods:
Excessive use of water for irrigation purposes leads to wastage of water at great levels. This leads to dryness on the land and Water Scarcity. The use of efficient and latest Irrigation Methods help us to save water and irrigate the land properly at the same time prevent Droughts.
Implement Afforestation and Reforestation:
If we will have more forests and trees around us, we will not face Dryness, High temperature or heat waves. But we will contribute in cooling the Earth through plants. Afforestation and Reforestation can reduce the risks of Drought in a region by providing cooling effect and water holding.
Plants Resistant to Drought:
Drought resilient crops are specialized crops that need less water for the production of crops or vegetation. This is immune to survive in dry climates and dry areas. These crops are best for preventing droughts because they us less amount of water as compared to ordinary crops and save water. This will avoid Drought Conditions in an Area.
Conservation of Water Resources:
The most important part that populations can play in preventing dryness and droughts in their region, is conservation of water bodies. Freshwater resources should be checked and protected after short intervals of time to avoid major damages. Water pollution should be controlled to avoid its wastage on greater level.
Community Education and Awareness:
People that lives in dry regions or the regions at risk of droughts, should be well aware about water conservation strategies and sustainable food growth. The education about preventing droughts will help the populations to prevent it and fight with it.
These are few Sustainable Strategies to prevent Drought or Extreme Dryness of a region. These strategies will help us to fight with droughts and help us to reduce the chances of drought occurrence and decrease its intensity. This blog contains information about Types, Effects and Mitigation Measures of Drought.
Drought and Climate Change:
Droughts are the results of Climatic conditions, weather patterns and sometimes unusual deficiency of water in respective region. Climate change includes all the weather events and temperature changes over a long period of time. We can say that drought is the result of extreme weather events including extended Heat Waves and low precipitation etc.
This kind of situation leads to drought and other Environmental issues like Water Scarcity, Famines and Food insecurity. It also cause the occurrence of many other economic and nutrition related issues. All these logics and evidences tell us that Droughts and Climate Change are directly related to each other, because the it is one of the Extreme Impact of Climate Change. In conclusion, we can say that Climate changes play a part in increasing the duration and intensity of droughts.
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