Drought and climate change adaptation: impacts and projections

This paper provides a background to the issues and current research surrounding drought in a changing climate. The publication draws insight from a dialogue with practitioners and researchers from a variety of New Zealand organisations involved in areas where climate-driven changes to drought risk are pertinent for long-term planning. The group’s goal was to better understand drought adaptation issues by mapping current knowledge of drought impacts and identifying knowledge gaps.

The group focussed on future drought exacerbated or altered due to climate change and took a people focussed (anthropocentric) view of the impacts of droughts starting with inspiration from Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (Maslow 1943). Existing issues not unique to climate change were deemed outside the scope of this dialogue. These included the debate around allocation (and pricing) of water and emergency responses to drought.