TITLE:
A New Approach for Assessing the Drought Risk Management Capacity at the Municipal Level in Brazil
AUTHORS:
Elton Kleiton Albuquerque de Almeida, Jose Antonio Marengo, Luana Albertani Pampuch Bortolozo, Ana Paula Martins do Amaral Cunha
KEYWORDS:
Drought Management, Brazil, Drought Indices, Vulnerability
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Climate Change,
Vol.12 No.4,
December
27,
2023
ABSTRACT: Long-term drought has occurred in all regions of Brazil, and its effects have been more intense in recent decades. Poor management of drought can exacerbate significant consequences, severely compromising water, food, energy, economic security, natural systems, and high fire risk that can affect biomes. It also slowly and indirectly affects the society living on vulnerable geographic space. This article discusses a methodology for assessing the drought risk management capacity at the municipal level in Brazil, and this new approach is statistically based using environmental data provided by the municipalities, from observational networks to data banks and remotely sensed data. It presents a method to indicate the steps of priority actions for the phases of drought management. It also characterized the long-term drought in Brazil (hydrological drought) between 1982 and 2022. The proposed approach provides a better understanding and the use of various drought indices to develop the most appropriate action steps for mitigation and adaptation. The final goal is to increase the resilience for those affected by drought. The work was developed based on the actions defined by the Brazilian Federal Government (Preparation, Prevention, Mitigation, Response, Recovery, and Restoration). This aims to improve the management of risk and disaster typified as drought in Brazil and to contribute with scientific knowledge to legislators regarding adaptation and resilience policies to drought extremes in parts of the country. At the end, we expect to highlight to managers and decision-makers the critical points in the government’s proactive and reactive actions to drought that need to be better managed.