The second edition of ISDR-Biblio is on Drought, Desertification and Water scarcity. Drought is one of the major threats among natural hazards to people’s livelihood and socio-economic development.
Drought tends to occur less frequently than other hazards. However, when it does occur, it generally affects a broad region for seasons or years at a time.
This can result in a larger proportion of the population being affected than when other disasters occur. For example, drought disasters account for less than 20 per cent of all disaster occurrences in Africa, but they account for more than 80 per cent of all people affected by natural disasters. Disasters triggered by prolonged drought in Africa can affect millions of people and contribute to malnutrition, famine and loss of life, whereas droughts in the United States primarily result in economic losses.

In 1977, the United Nations Conference to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) adopted a Plan of Action to Combat Desertification. At least 179 countries have joined the convention. Drought risk reduction is also
connected with another international convention, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Drought is one of the natural hazards to be considered in implementing the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction and the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015 adopted at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction in January 2005, in Kobe, Japan.

The planet we live on is abundantly supplied with water. Oceans cover 70 per cent of the earth’s surface and these contain 97 per cent of the total water supply on earth. However, this is all salt water. Only 2.5 per
cent of the water supply on earth is fresh water. Water scarcity is an issue of major concern. It is causing mounting problems for human populations and ecosystems all over the globe (SI-EUR).

International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) -Biblio 2 gives an overview of literature covering drought, desertification and water scarcity. This bibliography is of course not exhaustive. A CD-Rom containing key documents and publications in PDF version complements this bibliography.