Drought Risk Management in a Changing Climate: The Role of National Policies and the Drought Management Plan (DMP)

Risk management is the prevention, planning and evaluation to reduce and minimize the potential consequences of crises and it will be achieved through planning. The first step to deal with the drought crisis in different parts of the country and to moderate its effects is to recognize and understand the reality of drought, especially the interaction of its consequences and multiple causes. The widespread and extremely severe drought of the spring of 2021 in Iran is an indicator of extreme climate events under climate change, highlighting the complex challenges of water supply for competitive use in different regions in times of severe scarcity. There is growing concern about the inefficiency of current drought management practices, which are largely based on crisis management. These methods are reactive and therefore only examine the indicators of drought and ignore the underlying causes of the vulnerabilities associated with its effects. By adopting national drought policies that focus on risk management and by providing programs to mitigate the impacts of drought or preparedness at various levels, the capacity to deal with drought at the national level can be improved. Now is the time to adopt an approach based on which we can emphasize on mitigating the risk of drought. This article discusses the basic concepts of drought, the principles and objectives of drought policies, and the drought planning process that is effective in developing drought mitigation programs.