Summary
This study presents a novel nexus-based approach to drought assessment in Nordic climates by developing sector-specific standardised drought indices applied across 50 Swedish catchments using climate model ensembles. The analysis reveals divergent drought response patterns and timescales across water, energy, food and ecosystem services, suggesting that tailoring drought projections to individual nexus sectors improves relevance for policy and planning decisions in cold-climate regions.
Regional applicability
The findings are directly applicable to UK policy and practice, particularly for Scottish and Northern English upland and lowland catchments where similar cold-climate hydrological dynamics occur. The nexus approach and standardised indexing framework could inform UK drought planning and water-energy-food security assessments, though specific index calibration for UK catchment characteristics would be required.
Key measures
Standardised drought indices for water, energy, food and ecosystem services; drought response times and durations by sector; spatial patterns across 50 catchments
Outcomes reported
The study computed standardised drought indices across 50 Swedish catchments to assess how droughts propagate through the water, energy, food and ecosystem sectors under past and future climate scenarios. It identified sector-specific response patterns and timescales to drought stress.
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