Articles | Volume 24, issue 9
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-3173-2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-3173-2024
Review article
 | Highlight paper
 | 
23 Sep 2024
Review article | Highlight paper |  | 23 Sep 2024

Review article: Drought as a continuum – memory effects in interlinked hydrological, ecological, and social systems

Anne F. Van Loon, Sarra Kchouk, Alessia Matanó, Faranak Tootoonchi, Camila Alvarez-Garreton, Khalid E. A. Hassaballah, Minchao Wu, Marthe L. K. Wens, Anastasiya Shyrokaya, Elena Ridolfi, Riccardo Biella, Viorica Nagavciuc, Marlies H. Barendrecht, Ana Bastos, Louise Cavalcante, Franciska T. de Vries, Margaret Garcia, Johanna Mård, Ileen N. Streefkerk, Claudia Teutschbein, Roshanak Tootoonchi, Ruben Weesie, Valentin Aich, Juan P. Boisier, Giuliano Di Baldassarre, Yiheng Du, Mauricio Galleguillos, René Garreaud, Monica Ionita, Sina Khatami, Johanna K. L. Koehler, Charles H. Luce, Shreedhar Maskey, Heidi D. Mendoza, Moses N. Mwangi, Ilias G. Pechlivanidis, Germano G. Ribeiro Neto, Tirthankar Roy, Robert Stefanski, Patricia Trambauer, Elizabeth A. Koebele, Giulia Vico, and Micha Werner

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Cited articles

Aanderud, Z. T., Jones, S. E., Fierer, N., and Lennon, J. T.: Resuscitation of the rare biosphere contributes to pulses of ecosystem activity, Front. Microbiol., 6, 24, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2015.00024, 2015. 
Abatzoglou, J. T. and Williams, A. P.: Impact of anthropogenic climate change on wildfire across western US forests, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 113, 11770–11775, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1607171113, 2016. 
Acevedo, M., Pixley, K., Zinyengere, N., Meng, S., Tufan, H., Cichy, K., Bizikova, L., Isaacs, K., Ghezzi-Kopel, K., and Porciello, J.: A scoping review of adoption of climate-resilient crops by small-scale producers in low- and middle-income countries, Nat. Plants, 6, 1231–1241, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-020-00783-z, 2020. 
Adla, S., Pande, S., Vico, G., Vora, S., Alam, M. F., Basel, B., Haeffner, M., and Sivapalan, M.: Place for sociohydrology in sustainable and climate-resilient agriculture: Review and ways forward, Cambridge Prism. Water, 1, e13, https://doi.org/10.1017/wat.2023.16, 2023. 
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Executive editor
The paper deals with a topic that is current and of great importance to society. It reveals and illustrates the complexity of coupled human-hydrological-ecological systems and identifies starting points for improved management of droughts and associated risks.
Short summary
Drought is a creeping phenomenon but is often still analysed and managed like an isolated event, without taking into account what happened before and after. Here, we review the literature and analyse five cases to discuss how droughts and their impacts develop over time. We find that the responses of hydrological, ecological, and social systems can be classified into four types and that the systems interact. We provide suggestions for further research and monitoring, modelling, and management.
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