Drought is one of the major natural hazards, resulting in significant economic, social, and environmental costs. In Europe, water shortage is an important problem in many regions. However, despite the increasing awareness of this hazard, there is no European drought policy and institutional frameworks to cope with drought situations are only weakly developed.
This book is dedicated to furthering our understanding of the drought problem in Europe and to discussing policy and management options to mitigate its impacts. It covers aspects from the detection of water stress to the planning of mitigation strategies. The contributions are written by recognised experts in their field and represent a unique collection of papers on the topic.
Audience: The book will be of benefit to scientists, managers, and politicians involved in problems related to water management, risk assessment, and spatial planning. Students in Earth Sciences, especially in geography, climatology, hydrology, and agriculture, will find useful material in this collection of papers.

Inhalt
1: Introduction.- Drought Events in Europe.- 2: Drought Definition.- Drought Definition: A Hydrological Perspective.- Definition, Effects and Assessment of Groundwater Droughts.- Agricultural Drought A Practical Approach to Definition, Assessment and Mitigation Strategies.- 3: Drought Risk.- Drought Risk in a Changing Environment.- Synoptic Situations Causing Drought in the Mediterranean Basin.- Streamflow Drought Frequency Analysis.- Drought Preparedness in the United States: Recent Progress.- The Estimation of Drought Risk in Europe from Soil and Climatic Data.- 4: Drought Monitoring.- Drought Monitoring and Assessment: Status and Trends in the United States.- Comparison of Two Drought Indices for Drought Monitoring in Hungary A Case Study.- Drought Monitoring from Space.- Scale Issues in Drought Monitoring.- 5: Drought Impact.- Socio-Economic Aspects of Droughts.- Assessment of the Vulnerability of a River System to Drought.- Key Elements of Remote Sensing Based Systems for Assessing Drought Impact on EU Agriculture.- 6: Drought Mitigation Strategies.- Drought Mitigation Measures: a Comprehensive Framework.- Drought Mitigation Strategies A Dynamic Approach.- Some Lessons Learnt During the Drought of 19911995 in Spain.- Global Systems Ameliorate Local Droughts: Water, Food and Trade.- Decision Processes with Regard to Drought Monitoring and Mitigation.- 7: Conclusions and Recommendations.- Drought Definition.- List of Contributors.