Global climate change (GCC) has led to increased focus on the occurrence of, and preparation for, climate-related extremes and hazards. Population exposure, the relative likelihood that a person in a given location was exposed to a given hazard event(s) in a given period of time, was the outcome for this analysis. Our objectives were to develop a method for estimating the population exposure at...

Drought events in the Mediterranean are likely to increase in frequency, duration and intensity due to climate change, thereby affecting crop production. Information about drought is valuable for river basin authorities and the farmers affected by their decisions. The economic value of this information and the resulting decisions are of interest to these two stakeholder groups and to the inform...

Assessing intra-specific variation in drought stress response is required to mitigate the consequences of climate change on forest ecosystems. Previous studies suggest that European larch (Larix decidua Mill.), an important European conifer in mountainous and alpine forests, is highly vulnerable to drought. In light of this, we estimated the genetic variation in drought sensitivity and its degr...

The agricultural landscapes of Nebraska reflect a complex pattern of soil climate regimes and inherent variability that influence the cropping systems, behavior of farmers, and the health and sustainability of rural communities. The USDA crops and soils databases were coupled with the Enhanced Newhall Simulation Model (ENSM) to explain spatial relationships of soil climate regimes, climatic shi...

For ranchers in the Southwest, unanticipated droughts pose serious management challenges. Social and economic factors combine with the physical impacts of drought to render ranchers more vulnerable to climate variability. Using agricultural census data and interviews with ranchers, we analyze ranchers’ responses to drought events in 1996 and 1999. From this analysis we develop an initial assess...

Climate change is challenging forestry management and practices. Among other things, tree species with the ability to cope with more extreme climate conditions have to be identified. However, while environmental factors may severely limit tree growth or even cause tree death, assessing a tree species' potential for surviving future aggravated environmental conditions is rather demanding. The ai...

Grasslands across the United States play a key role in regional livelihood and national food security. Yet, it is still unclear how this important resource will respond to the prolonged warm droughts and more intense rainfall events predicted with climate change. The early 21st-century drought in the southwestern United States resulted in hydroclimatic conditions that are similar to those expec...

The frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events are likely to increase with global warming. However, it is not clear how these events might affect agricultural crops and whether yield losses resulting from severe droughts or heat stress will increase in the future. The aim of this paper is to analyse changes in the magnitude and spatial patterns of two impact indices for wheat: the probab...

Norway spruce (Picea abies) is by far the most important timber species in Europe, but its outstanding role in future forests is jeopardized by its high sensitivity to drought. We analyzed drought response of Norway spruce at the warmest fringe of its natural range. Based on a 35-year old provenance experiment we tested for genetic variation among and within seed provenances across consecutivel...

Socioeconomic drought broadly refers to conditions whereby the water supply cannot satisfy the demand. Most previous studies describe droughts based on large-scale meteorological/hydrologic conditions, ignoring the demand and local resilience to cope with climate variability. Reservoirs provide resilience against climatic extremes and play a key role in water supply and demand management. Here ...