Working Group: Drought in the Anthropocene
Chair: Anne Van Loon
In this human-influenced era, we need to rethink the concept of drought to include the human role in mitigating and enhancing drought. One major challenge is the quantification of impacts of drought on society, i.e. finding the relation between physical drought characteristics and wildfires, crop yields, electricity production, navigation, etc. This is a basic prerequisite for the prediction of changes in risk and vulnerability in the future. The aim of the working group is to investigate and quantify the interactions between drought and people.
For more background information on this topic, please find our Drought in the Anthropocene paper in Nature Geoscience or browse in the Panta Rhei Library for related papers.
Activities of the working group:
Student Projects

Read the output of our group:
Follow the working group on Twitter:
#PantaRheiDrought
Upcoming meeting: t.b.d.
13 Dec 2018 AGU Washington DC, USA
10-12 Oct 2018 Annual meeting Utrecht, NL
12 April 2018 EGU Vienna, AT
8-12 Oct 2017 Annual meeting Freiburg, DE
27 April 2017 EGU Vienna, AT
15 Dec 2016 AGU San Francisco, USA
19-21 Sept 2016 Annual meeting Birmingham, UK
20 April 2016 EGU Vienna, AT
Notes of previous meetings available via Anne Van Loon

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Chair: Anne Van Loon
In this human-influenced era, we need to rethink the concept of drought to include the human role in mitigating and enhancing drought. One major challenge is the quantification of impacts of drought on society, i.e. finding the relation between physical drought characteristics and wildfires, crop yields, electricity production, navigation, etc. This is a basic prerequisite for the prediction of changes in risk and vulnerability in the future. The aim of the working group is to investigate and quantify the interactions between drought and people.
For more background information on this topic, please find our Drought in the Anthropocene paper in Nature Geoscience or browse in the Panta Rhei Library for related papers.
Activities of the working group:
We are setting up a number of experiments with the aim to study the influence of people on drought, the impact of drought on people and the feedbacks between drought and society. Our overarching goal is to increase understanding of drought-society feedbacks, both positive and negative. The research questions we want to answer are:
A: How are people enhancing/alleviating drought events?
B: How are people impacted by drought events?
C: How are people responding to drought events by changing water use, land use, water management, water storage?
D: How do these feedback processes result in aggravated (or alleviated) drought conditions and more (or less) impacts?
E: How human activities can exacerbate or alleviate societal impacts of droughts?
Ongoing collaborative projects: There are a few initiatives that are open for contributions, please contact Anne Van Loon for an updated list.Student Projects
Read the output of our group:
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Di Baldassarre et al. Water shortages worsened by reservoir effects. Nature Sustainability 1, 617–622 (2018) http://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-018-0159-0
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Van Oel et al. Diagnosing drought using the downstreamness concept: the effect of reservoir networks on drought evolution, Hydrological Sciences Journal, 63:7, 979-990 (2018) http://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2018.1470632
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Kreibich et al. How to improve attribution of changes in drought and flood impacts, Hydrological Sciences Journal, 64:1, 1-18 (2019) http://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2018.1558367
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Van Loon et al. Using paired catchments to quantify the human influence on hydrological droughts, Hydrology, Earth System Sciences, 23, 1725–1739 (2019) 10.5194/hess-23-1725-2019
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Rangecroft et al. An observation-based method to quantify the human influence on hydrological drought: upstream–downstream comparison, Hydrological Sciences Journal, 64:3, 276-287 (2019) http://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2019.1581365
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Margariti et al. Anthropogenic activities alter drought termination, Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene, 7:1, 1-27 (2019) http://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.365
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Sutanto et al. Moving from drought hazard to impact forecasts. Nature communications, 10, 4945, 1-7 (2019) http://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12840-z10
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Sutanto & Van Lanen, Hydrological Drought Characteristics Based on Groundwater and Runoff Across Europe. Proceedings of IAHS, 383, 281-290 (2020) http://doi.org/10.5194/piahs-383-281-2020
- Wendt et al. Asymmetric impact of groundwater use on groundwater droughts, Hydrology Earth System Sciences, 24, 4853–4868 (2020) https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-4853-2020
- Ward et al. The need to integrate flood and drought disaster risk reduction strategies, Water Security, 11, 100070 (2020) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasec.2020.100070
- Wendt et al.Managed aquifer recharge as a drought mitigation strategy in heavily-stressed aquifers, Environmental Research Letters, 16, 1, 014046 (2021) https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abcfe1
Follow the working group on Twitter:
#PantaRheiDrought
Upcoming meeting: t.b.d.
Previous meetings:
18 June 2021 online
4 May 2020 EGU online
11 Dec 2019 AGU San Francisco, USA
29-31 Oct 2019 Annual workshop Tempe, USA
4-9 Aug 2019 Writing retreat Buxton, UK
10 July 2019 IUGG Montreal, Canada
12 April 2019 EGU Vienna, AT18 June 2021 online
4 May 2020 EGU online
11 Dec 2019 AGU San Francisco, USA
29-31 Oct 2019 Annual workshop Tempe, USA
4-9 Aug 2019 Writing retreat Buxton, UK
10 July 2019 IUGG Montreal, Canada
13 Dec 2018 AGU Washington DC, USA
10-12 Oct 2018 Annual meeting Utrecht, NL
12 April 2018 EGU Vienna, AT
8-12 Oct 2017 Annual meeting Freiburg, DE
27 April 2017 EGU Vienna, AT
15 Dec 2016 AGU San Francisco, USA
19-21 Sept 2016 Annual meeting Birmingham, UK
20 April 2016 EGU Vienna, AT
Notes of previous meetings available via Anne Van Loon
