Global drought risk in cities: present and future urban hotspots

This study aims to provide this global overview of urban drought risk by carrying out a global-scale analysis for 264 urban agglomerations. The goal is to find global patterns of drought risk as well as the underlying patterns of drought hazard, exposure, and vulnerability. The study will focus on hydrological droughts, which relates to deficits of streamflow and groundwater, because the impacts of drought on cities are mostly originating from either of these water sources.

Key takeaways of this publication include: 

• The results project that, towards 2050, hazard/costs increase for 73%-88% from the target agglomerations;
• Exposure increases for 91%-97%;
• Following the model, the number of agglomerations with high costs and medium exposure increases, whilst agglomerations with low costs and low exposure reduce in number.