This book provides an understanding of the occurrence and impacts of droughts for developing countries and vulnerable sub-groups, such as women and pastoralists. It presents tools for assessing vulnerabilities, introduces individual policies to combat the effects of droughts, and highlights the importance of integrated multi-sectoral approaches and drought networks at various levels. Currently, there are few books on the market that address the growing need for knowledge on these cross-cutting issues. As drought can occur anywhere, the systemic connections between droughts and livelihoods are a key factor in development in many dryland and agriculturally-dependent nations.

Key Features:

- Connects the biophysical, social, economic, policy and institutional aspects of droughts across multiple regions in developing world
- Analyzes policy linkages between government agencies, public institutions, NGOs, the private sector and communities
- Includes a discussion of gender dimensions of drought and its impacts
- Presents a multi-sectoral perspective, including the human dimensions of drought in developing countries

'Drought Challenges' is the second volume of the series 'Current Directions in Water Scarcity Research'. The first volume 'From Catchment Management to Managing River Basins' synthesizes key scientific facts crucial for catchment assessment, planning and river basin water accounting. The book presents extensive reviews of international literature on catchment hydrology, forest hydrology and other hydrological processes, such as groundwater-surface water interactions. It discusses not only the science of catchment assessment and planning, but also the catchment planning process. It documents several of the positive international experiences with integrated catchment management and integrated basin management, distilling key learnings. Case studies from India and other parts of South Asia are also included, along with new pilot studies.

Finally, the first volume discusses the theoretical and operational aspects of integrated catchment management and integrated water management in river basins using international best practices and case studies.