Frequent drought events, recently occurred in different Mediterranean
regions, have highlighted a general inadequacy of the current strategies
applied to mitigate negative impacts of such phenomenon on different
water sectors. In particular, the lack of timely drought monitoring
systems, the difficulty in transferring advanced methodologies for the
assessment of drought risk to the institutions responsible for water
resources management, as well as the complexity in defining simple and
objective criteria to select and implement appropriate mitigation
measures, represent the main limits to an efficient drought management
policy.
These key issues have been tackled by universities and public agencies
involved in the EU projects Sedemed and Sedemed II (Programme Interreg
IIIB MEDOCC), aimed at the definition of an integrated network for real
time monitoring of drought, the development of common methodologies for
drought analysis and forecasting, as well as of mitigation strategies
for the Mediterranean countries.
This book presents the main outcomes of such projects with a specific
focus on: drought monitoring and forecasting techniques at different
spatial scales (Part I), new agrometeorological indices and remote
sensing technique for drought identification (Part II), tools to improve
surface water resources management under drought condition (Part III),
methods for monitoring and management groundwater (Part IV) and
mitigation strategies to prevent or face drought impacts (Part V).
