Droughts have long been a part of California’s climate, but the 2011–2015 drought was estimated to be the worst in 1,200 years. It revealed significant vulnerabilities within the current water management regime and practices. The California Water Action Plan, released in 2014 in response to the extreme drought, led to an improved planning approach that incorporates the uncertain effects of climate change and other major risks.

Though droughts are natural events, there is an increasing understanding of how humans have amplified their severity and worsened their effects on both the environment and human populations. Humans have altered both meteorological droughts through human-induced climate change and hydrological droughts through management of water movement and processes within a landscape, such as by diverting rivers or changing land use. In the Anthropocene (the ongoing period in which humans are the dominant influence on climate and the environment), droughts are closely entwined with human actions, cultures and responses.

This series of videos explains the effects of drought all around the world through the presentation of case studies.

They are the result of the work of UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programme (IHP) in partnership with GRID-Arendal, the University of Southampton and the U.S. National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS).

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