The role of water conservation in drought planning

Excerpt

Drought is a natural part of climate in most regions around the world. We should not be surprised when drought occurs but expect and account for it in our management plans. Yet, every year, severe drought occurs somewhere in the United States, resulting in millions, if not billions, of dollars in financial drought losses and untold stress on people, businesses, and the environment.

Although many livelihoods and sectors are relatively resilient to short-term drought, there are times when exceptional drought circumstances undermine our usual management strategies. Historically, when this has happened, governments and other decision makers have implemented a wide range of ad-hoc drought relief measures to get through the hard times. Although often providing important emergency assistance, these crisis management efforts are frequently highly political, untimely, inefficient, and poorly targeted (Wilhite et al. 2005).

To address these issues, a new paradigm has emerged among drought and other hazard planners that focuses more attention on implementing proactive risk management strategies before a disaster occurs. Planners are increasingly developing drought mitigation and preparedness plans to increase a region's or sector's long-term resiliency to drought and to help ensure the implementation of appropriate and well-coordinated response actions during drought. Water conservation plays …