Summary
This review reframes drought from a deficit product to a coupled human-water process, integrating natural climate variability with anthropogenic drivers including land-use change, water management decisions, and climate change. The authors argue that traditional drought definitions obscure the compound, multidimensional dynamics that govern water scarcity in human-dominated systems, and propose a process-based conceptual framework to better inform water resources planning and policy. The paper identifies critical research and management gaps in understanding how altered land and water management practices magnify water supply-demand imbalances and risk 'water bankruptcy' under future climate and demand scenarios.
UK applicability
The conceptual framework is directly applicable to UK water resource management, particularly for lowland England where competing demands (agriculture, public supply, environmental flows) and land-use intensification already create supply-demand tensions exacerbated by climate variability. The paper's emphasis on integrated human-water system dynamics and feedback processes is relevant to UK water governance reforms and catchment-scale planning.
Key measures
Conceptual framework for anthropogenic drought; integration of natural variability, climate change, and human agency; water supply-demand gap dynamics; land-atmosphere feedback mechanisms
Outcomes reported
The paper conceptualises anthropogenic drought as a process integrating natural water variability, climate change, human decisions, and land-water management practices within coupled human-water systems. It identifies research gaps and management opportunities for understanding multidimensional drought phenomena driven by dynamic feedbacks including land-atmosphere interactions and water-energy balance processes.
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