Abstract[Drought indicators are proliferating, but with little consideration of which are most meaningful for describing drought impacts. A number of recent reviews compare different drought indicators, but none assess which indicators are actually used in the many operational drought monitoring and early warning efforts, why they were selected, or whether they have been 'ground-truthed', i.e., compared with information representing local drought conditions and/or impacts. Also lacking is a comprehensive assessment of the state of monitoring of drought impacts. To help fill this gap, we combine a review of drought indicators and impacts with a survey of 33 providers of operational drought monitoring and early warning systems from global to regional scales. Despite considerable variety in the indicators used operationally, certain patterns emerge. Both the literature review and the survey reveal that impact monitoring does exist but has rarely been systematized. Efforts to test drought indicators have mostly focused on agricultural drought. Our review points to a current trend towards the design and use of composite indicators, but with limited evaluation of the links between indicators and drought impacts. Overall, we find that much progress has been made both in research and practice on drought indicators, but monitoring and early warning systems are not yet strongly linked with the assessment of wider impacts on the environment and society. To understand drought impacts fully requires a better framing of drought as a coupled dynamic between the environment and society.]
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Pagella TF, Sinclair FL (2014) Development and use of a typology of mapping tools to assess their fitness for supporting management of ecosystem service provision. Landscape Ecology 29: 383-399. Troy A, Wilson MA (2006) Mapping Ecosystem Services: Practical challenges and opportunities in linking GIS and value transfer. Ecological Economics 60: 435-449.
CHAPTER 2 Background Ecosystem ServicesNature has a lot to offer to humans (view from Mount Saana, Finland. Photo: Benjamin Burkhard 2014).
Further readingBraat LC, de Groot RS (2012) The ecosystem services agenda: bridging the worlds of natural science and economics, conservation and development and public and private policy'. Ecosystem Services 1: 4-15.
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