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Drought proof drought prone villages (India)

Rain water use and storage. Eco friendly sustainable agriculture. Develop waste land, sloppy land and forest land (control of erosion loss Kitchen gardens for nutritional security testing of SRI and mixed cropping). Soil conservation, land shaping, pasture development, vegetative bunding

Advantages / Benefits
Any region with such traditional knowledge and techniques can replicate this approach with small local technological and social additions/adaptability approaches
These villages have been champions of forest protection traditionally, therefore, when the project talked about forest protection and management as one of the important components to arrest desertification, the people easily agreed to it and got organized
Who involved
Local water councils
Farmers
Non-governmental organization (NGOs)s
Farmers
Information sources
https://qcat.wocat.net/en/unccd/view/unccd_236/
Feasibility
The continuous drought condition in an area where drought was not seen before had already made people so much vulnerable that they were looking for some direction to fight this situation.  This became the first condition for achieving success in this model. 

SLM examples from [term:name]

Sustainable land management (SLM) refers to practices and technologies that aim to integrate the management of land, water, biodiversity, and other environmental resources to meet human needs while ensuring the long-term sustainability of ecosystem services and livelihoods. Implementing Sustainable Land Management options can contribute to reducing drought risk.

You can find examples from [term:name] in the WOCAT database.

Advantages / Benefits
Food security
Maintenance of dams and irrigation structures
Soil carbon sequestration
Climate change mitigation
Information sources
Concrete examples in the WOCAT database

When the skies ran dry

Bonn, Germany – Over the past hundred years, the increase in human populations has been three times greater than during the entire previous history of mankind. More natural resources have been extracted from the earth and more land converted for cities, agriculture, and industry than ever before. On this warming planet, droughts seem to have changed their nature as well, increasing in spatial extent, duration, frequency, and severity.

The new film "When skies ran dry," produced by Dr. Patrick Augenstein, attempts to answer the following questions: How can we more actively prepare for drought on a planet more radically altered by humans than ever before? What’s causing drought in the anthropocene and how we can confront the risks and challenges it brings? The filmmakers visit some of the world’s regions affected and altered by drought, speaking to farmers, water managers, scientists and policy makers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

UNCCD, WMO, GWP and FAO meet to discuss the Drought Initiative

25 April, 2018 – Rome, Italy – A meeting at the FAO headquarters brought together representatives of the UNCCD secretariat, FAO and WMO to explore opportunities for collaboration in the framework of the new UNCCD Drought Initiative, adopted at the COP 13 in Ordos, China. The meeting focused on various drought-related tools, programmes and projects implemented by WMO and FAO. The discussion went on to explore areas of potential cooperation by harnessing synergies, identifying joint steps and the way forward.
 
Present at the meeting were Mr. Robert Stefanski, Chief of the Agricultural Meteorology Division at WMO, Mr. Frederik Pischke, Senior Programme Officer at GWP, FAO experts Mr. Eduardo Mansur, Director of Land and Water Division and Dr. Mark Svoboda (through Skype), Director of National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska, USA. UNCCD programme officer for drought Mr. Daniel Tsegai and the Global Mechanism programme coordinator Ms. Camilla Nordheim-Larsen represented the convention.

 UNCCD, WMO, GWP and FAO meet to discuss The Drought Initiative

 

 

UNCCD presents Drought Initiative at UN-Water meeting

1-2 February 2018 − Rome, Italy − UNCCD has presented its new Drought Initiative to the UN-Water members and partners who gathered for the 28th UN-Water meeting at the IFAD Headquarters in Rome to discuss global water challenges. 

The preparations for the first phase of the Drought Initiative are in full swing with the focus on helping countries develop national drought preparedness plans. The initiative has been adopted by the recent UNCCD COP13 in Ordos, China in response to the growing need to assist countries, communities, agriculture, businesses and individuals threatened by drought − a disaster that has a negative effect on a broad spectrum of social and economic aspects, from food production to public health.

The UNCCD secretariat aims to implement the Initiative in the biennium 2018−2019 by taking action on:
•    national drought preparedness plans 
•    regional efforts to reduce drought vulnerability and risk, and
•    a toolbox to boost the resilience of people and ecosystems to drought

By being prepared and acting early, people and communities can develop resilience against drought and minimize its risks. UNCCD experts can help country Parties review or validate existing drought measures and prepare a national drought plan to put all the pieces together, identify gaps and ensure that necessary steps are taken as soon as the possibility of drought is signaled by meteorological services. It is envisaged that such a plan would be endorsed and eventual action triggered at the highest political level.

UNCCD presents Drought Initiative at UN-Water meeting

 

 

About the Drought Toolbox

Requested in The COP 13 as part of the Drought Initiative, the toolbox is being designed to provide drought stakeholders with easy access to tools, case studies and other resources to support the design of National Drought Policy Plan with the aim to boost the resilience of people and ecosystems to drought.

The drought toolbox collates a large number of tools organized in 3 modules.

Drought Monitoring and Early Warning.

Drought Vulnerability and Risk Assessment.

Drought Risk Mitigation Measures.

The Drought Toolbox is currently being developed as part of the Drought Initiative through the close partnership among UNCCD, WMO, FAO, GWP, the Joint Research Centre of the European Union, the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) of the University of Nebraska, and UNEP-DHI.

  • Homepage picture: Photo by Patrick Augenstein, copyright UNCCD, 2018

 

 

Partners

The Drought Toolbox is currently being developed as part of the Drought Initiative by the close partnership collaboration of:

 

Drought Planning

Drought is considered as one of the most far-reaching disasters, causing short and long-term economic and social losses to millions of people.

According to the High-Level Panel on Water (2018), about 40 percent of the world’s population is affected by water scarcity, with as many as 700 million people at risk of being displaced as a result by 2030.

Against this backdrop, the Conference of Parties of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) requested the secretariat and appropriate UNCCD institutions and bodies, including the Science-Policy Interface, within their respective mandate to (a) Implement a drought initiative for the biennium 2018−2019 which proposes action on  drought preparedness systems, regional efforts to reduce drought vulnerability and risk, and a toolbox to boost the resilience of people and ecosystems to drought  (Decision 29/COP13).

Read More: Monitoring and Early Warning

Drought: Monitoring and Early Warning

Drought is a natural hazard that can be monitored well due to the slow onset of events, enabling the observation of changes in precipitation, temperature, soil moisture, surface and ground water reserves, as well as social and economic behaviors.

Why use a Monitoring and Early Warning System? 

Most of the time, the drought is already well under way when it is recognized as such – it is impossible to predict when the drought starts or ends. The early detection of these changes is important for triggering effective and efficient actions to prepare for drought and mitigate its impacts. It is important that indicators and indices describe the impacts of drought accurately.

Drought monitoring shows the current state of a drought and how it develops over time. The level and the depth of monitoring may vary from place to place and with a degree of maturity of the monitoring system. By using the drought monitor, people can follow the development of drought through various stages. In some situations, it is possible to anticipate the climate conditions, based on the study of teleconnections, in particular, the sea surface temperatures, their causes and effects.

MEW

 

 

How to use the tools

UNEP-DHI Tool 

The Drought Portal is a monitoring system with freely available data for drought assessments. It provides access to several apps supporting decision makers at the local and basin level.

Tool overview

The aim is to support existing planning processes as the Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis/Strategic Action Programme (TDA/SAP) and Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) at the basin scale and Water Safety Planning at a local scale through the technical apps. The data is updated in near-real time, and you can use the tool to generate custom reports.  

For video overview: 

Video tutorials

You can also learn more about the tool with the tutorial list on Youtube.

 

Technical exercises and User guide

Practice and learn from the technical exercises that can be download as pdf files in this Dropbox link or visit the user guide for more in-depth information on the use of the apps and the intended support for the different stages within basin and local level planning.

The Flood and Drought portal is developed by UNEP-DHI, in collaboration with the UNCCD, as part of the Drought Toolbox.

Find more databases and developed systems

The decision tree will guide you through the search questions and help find other databases and developed systems. You can skip questions when you are unsure about answers. 

Decision tree

Decision tree

Early warning systems

 

Integrated Drought Management HelpDesk

The Integrated Drought Management HelpDesk provides access to tailor-made support for an integrated approach to drought management and the latest knowledge and guidance on drought management policy and practice to countries. It was developed by The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Global Water Partnership (GWP) with support of the over 30 expert institutions, which are partners of the Integrated Drought Management Program (IDMP).

Drought management plan and policy guidance as well as country examples is available at the Integrated Drought Management HelpDesk.  

A continuously updated list of drought monitoring and early warning tools and examples is available at the Integrated Drought Management HelpDesk Pillar Section. Also, an overview of the most commonly used drought indicators and resources to apply them is available at the Integrated Drought Management HelpDesk indicator and indices database and  Handbook on Drought Indicators and Indices.