Drought adaptation and its feedbacks on hydrology, drought risk and flood risk.

Climate change is leading to an increase in both drought and flood events. Adapting to these extreme events is becoming increasingly important. Adaptation, however, may in turn affect the hydrology, influencing both drought and flood risk. This project will investigate these feedbacks. There are many local case studies on drought adaptation, but consistent evidence is lacking on when and where adaptation to drought is undertaken, and its effects on hydrology. In addition, droughts and floods are traditionally studied and managed separately, even though they are two sides of the same coin. This work will synthesise local case studies from the literature and existing databases to develop a dynamic model of the feedbacks between drought adaptation and the hydrological system.

The aim is to produce a typology of drought adaptation measures and investigate the effects on both drought and flood risk. The project will use a systematic review of drought adaptation, which will lead to the development of a generally applicable socio-hydrological model, which will be used to investigate how drought adaptation and its effects on hydrology varies across different types of locations. In addition, it will investigate how robust the different types of measures are to the different effects of climate.

There is the potential to apply this model to a more detailed case study, for example in sub-Saharan Africa, where both supervisors have existing research projects and connections.