In recent years, droughts have had substantial impacts on nearly all regions of the EU, affecting several critical systems such as agriculture, water supply, energy, river transport, and ecosystems. These impacts are projected to further increase due to climate change. While some of the drivers of drought risk are well known for some systems and regions, drought risks and impacts remain hard to assess and quantify.

The European Drought Risk Atlas is a step towards impact-based drought assessment and can support the development and implementation of drought management and adaptation policies and actions. It characterises how drought hazard, exposure and vulnerability interact and affect different but interconnected systems: agriculture, public water supply, energy, riverine transport, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems.

The Atlas presents both a conceptual and quantitative approach to drought risk for these systems. The conceptual drought risk models (impact chains) are the result of a review of the literature in Europe and consultations with experts to construct visualisations of the most relevant drivers and how they interact to determine risk and impacts. The quantitative estimate of drought risk is based on machine learning techniques and maps drought risk at the sub-national level in terms of annual average loss and probable maximum losses at specific return periods, both for present climate conditions, and for projections under different levels of global warming (+1.5 °C, +2 °C, +3 °C).

Authors: Rossi, L., Wens, M., De Moel, H., Cotti, D., Sabino Siemons, A., Toreti, A., Maetens, W., Masante, D., Van Loon, A., Hagenlocher, M., Rudari, R., Naumann, G., Meroni, M., Avanzi, F., Isabellon, M. and Barbosa, P., European Drought Risk Atlas, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2023, doi:10.2760/33211, JRC135215