Characterizing the potential for drought action from combined hydrological and societal perspectives
Journal Article
Overview
abstract
Abstract. Drought is a function of both natural and human influences, but fully; characterizing the interactions between human and natural influences on; drought remains challenging. To better characterize parts of the drought; feedback loop, this study combines hydrological and societal perspectives to; characterize and quantify the potential for drought action. For the; hydrological perspective, we examine historical groundwater data, from which; we determine the decadal likelihoods of exceeding hydrologic thresholds; relevant to different water uses. Stakeholder interviews yield data about how; people rate the importance of water for different water uses. We combine; these to quantify the Potential Drought Action Indicator (PDAI). The PDAI is; demonstrated for a study site in south-central Oklahoma, where water; availability is highly influenced by drought and management of water; resources is contested by local stakeholders. For the hydrological; perspective, we find that the historical decadal likelihood of exceedance for; a moderate threshold associated with municipal supply has ranged widely: from; 23 % to 75 %, which corresponds well with natural drought variability; in the region. For the societal perspective, stakeholder interviews reveal; that people value water differently for various uses. Combining this; information into the PDAI illustrates that potential drought action increases; as the hydrologic threshold is exceeded more often; this occurs as conditions; get drier and when water use thresholds are more moderate. The PDAI also; shows that for water uses where stakeholders have diverse views of; importance, the PDAI will be diverse as well, and this is exacerbated under; drier conditions. The variability in stakeholder views of importance is; partially explained by stakeholders' cultural worldviews, pointing to some; implications for managing water when drought risks threaten. We discuss how; the results can be used to reduce potential disagreement among stakeholders; and promote sustainable water management, which is particularly important for; planning under increasing drought.
