Sustainable development substantially reduces the risk of future drought impacts

Drought is a major natural hazard that can cause cascading impacts on socioeconomic sectors, and its risk is expected to increase under future climate change and socioeconomic developments. However, a comprehensive cross-disciplinary drought risk outlook is currently lacking to support integrative disaster risk reduction efforts. To address this gap, our analysis examines drought exposure, vulnerability, and risk towards the end of this century under four future pathways. The study identifies the Mediterranean, Amazon, southern Africa, and Central America as the most impacted regions where extreme multivariate drought is projected to become two to four times more likely. Our analysis also shows that sustainable development would reduce population exposure to drought by 70% compared to fossil-fueled development. Furthermore, it halves the number of countries facing a fivefold increase in drought risk. Our results underscore the critical need for a cross-disciplinary drought risk outlook and emphasize the importance of considering exposure and vulnerability for risk assessments. Future drought impacts are expected to be highest in the Mediterranean, the Amazon, southern Africa and Central America, but exposure and socioeconomic risk could be reduced with sustainable development, suggests an analysis that integrates information on precipitation, runoff and soil moisture.

Automated summary

Drought is a significant natural hazard that will become more likely in the future, affecting regions such as the Mediterranean, Amazon, southern Africa, and Central America. Sustainable development can reduce drought risk and population exposure, as well as the number of countries facing high drought risk. This highlights the need for a comprehensive cross-disciplinary drought risk outlook that considers exposure and vulnerability.