This study synthesizes the multiscalar and nonlinear dynamics of drought impacts across Spain. It highlights the combined role of precipitation deficits and rising temperatures, showing the stronger performance of SPEI over SPI under warming conditions. Agricultural impacts respond to intermediate drought durations, while hydrological systems show delayed long-term responses. Severe droughts amplify impacts nonlinearly, with strong spatial variability affecting crops, reservoirs and ecosystems.

We developed a new method to estimate daily land evaporation at high resolution across the Iberian Peninsula, explicitly accounting for irrigation. By combining satellite and meteorological data, we show that irrigation can strongly increase evaporation in agricultural areas. The results better match ground observations and improve understanding of water use. This approach can support farming decisions and water management at the regional scale, and will be extended to global applications.

Our study created a unique database that tracks vegetation health across Spain and the Balearic Islands from 1981 to now, updated every two weeks. By using satellite images from multiple sources, we provide accurate and consistent data that helps detect changes in vegetation due to factors like fires. This tool is crucial for farmers, environmental managers, and policymakers to monitor and protect plant life, ensuring better management of natural resources and agricultural productivity.

Understanding climate change is crucial, but global models lack fine detail for local assessments. Regional climate models improve accuracy by simulating climate at higher resolution. This study compares two approaches: one continuous and one resetting daily to reduce errors and speed up processing. Both perform well and similarly, but the reinitialized method is 30 times more efficient. Its lower cost makes it a promising option for high-resolution climate modelling and regional predictions.

Drought is undeniably one of the most intricate and significant natural hazards with far-reaching consequences for the environment, economy, water resources, agriculture, and societies across the globe. In response to this challenge, we have devised high-resolution drought indices. These indices serve as invaluable indicators for assessing shifts in drought patterns and their associated impacts on a global, regional, and local level facilitating the development of tailored adaptation strategies.