Contextualized drought indicators to inform water governance and interventions: the case study of Ceará, Brazil

While recent studies have been showing that drought-related impacts are driven by demographic or socioeconomic factors, most of the depicting indicators are merely based on the water-cycle dynamics. The drought mitigation bodies of the Northeastern semi-arid region of Brazil, affected by a pluri-annual drought since 2011, have been following this same pattern. Through this PhD, it is sought to develop and test indicators depicting the extent that the water uses in the area are contributing to socioeconomic and environmental drought impacts. Such local and contextualized indicators aim to link water accounting data to tangible decision-making for water and drought managers.

This PhD project is part of the 3D project Diagnosing drought for dealing with drought.