Comprehensive and Participatory Drought Monitoring for Improved Disaster Mitigation

While drought is a natural part of the weather cycle, the changing climate and human-induced water scarcity have led to worsening conditions.The consequences of unmitigated drought are far-reaching and can heavily strike agriculture and other crucial sectors, impacting the lives of millions. Therefore, drought monitoring becomes a crucial tool to track and assess drought impacts on the ground for better mitigation.

Understanding Drought

Droughts are happening more frequently than before. Between 2000 and 2022, the number and duration of droughts has risen by 29%. Extreme drought cases were also reported on almost every continent between 2022 and 2024, according to a report by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

The cost of drought is huge because the hazard systemically affects the most vital aspects of our lives, including food security and public health. The prolonged absence of precipitation can trigger or amplify water scarcity, which, in turn, affects agriculture, sanitation, and other crucial sectors.

In Namibia, for instance, the government even resorted to wildlife culling to tackle food insecurity due to drought emergencies. In this case, drought impacts extend to biodiversity and ecosystems as well.

Drought Monitoring Practices

The complexity of drought impacts underscores the need for drought monitoring to gain better understanding of the hazard as well as formulating actions to mitigate it. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) published the “Drought Impact Monitoring: Baseline Review of Practices” report as a part of the organization’s effort to build global resilience against drought and extreme weather events.

The report highlights the need to understand the local and contextual knowledge in drought monitoring. This knowledge can be gathered from local experts and communities to get a better grasp about the real impacts experienced on the ground, both in the form of numbers or narrative.

Furthermore, it is also important to ask the right questions before starting data collection in drought monitoring, such as what impacts are examined and for whom this data collection will benefit. Training citizen scientists and fostering collaboration with research institutions and organizations, fostering transboundary cooperation, and establishing centralized data collection are also important in improving drought monitoring.

Strengthening Disaster Response

Actions to tackle drought impacts begin with comprehensive and relevant data, which is why drought monitoring is important to help reduce vulnerability against the natural hazard. Developing an effective drought monitoring system requires participation from government, researchers, and local communities. At a global scale, international cooperation must be fostered to collectively minimize the enormous cost of disasters, for the welfare and wellbeing of all.

Editor: Nazalea Kusuma

Kresentia Madina

Reporter at Green Network Asia | Website |  + postsBio

Madina is the Assistant Manager of Stakeholder Engagement at Green Network Asia. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English Studies from Universitas Indonesia. As part of the GNA In-House Team, she supports the organization's multi-stakeholder engagement across international organizations, governments, businesses, civil society, and grassroots communities through digital publications, events, capacity building, and research.

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