Symposium on Drought in Africa PDF Download

Author: International Development Research Centre (Canada)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Droughts
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Author: Ben Cook
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231548907
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
Water is fundamental to all life. From the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, to the extreme water shortages that have struck California in recent years, modern societies often take its abundance for granted until it unexpectedly becomes scarce. Drought is one of the many problems anthropogenic climate change may exacerbate, but it is also a complex phenomenon at the intersection of a range of scientific disciplines and public policy issues. In this innovative book, Benjamin I. Cook brings together climate science, hydrology, and ecology to provide a synthetic overview of drought and its environmental and social consequences. Cook introduces readers to the hydroclimate and its components, explaining the global water cycle, the earth’s climate system, and the distribution of water resources. He discusses drought dynamics and variability over time, the climatological context and ecological effects, and environmental issues such as desertification, land degradation, and groundwater depletion. He also considers the socioeconomic impacts of drought and the role of drought risk management policy, especially in light of how climate change is expected to affect drought risk and severity. Cook gives special attention to paleoclimate and the role of drought in the crises of ancient civilizations. A scientifically comprehensive and approachable overview of water issues throughout the world, Drought is a critical interdisciplinary text that will be essential reading for a broad range of students in earth science and environmental and sustainability studies.

Author: Joaquin Andreu
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1315687224
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 530

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Book Description
Droughts occur in arid and semi-arid areas of the world, but also in humid areas, and can develop over short periods (flash drought) or longer periods (seasons/decades). Even though progress has been made, it remains difficult to adequately characterize, monitor, forecast and manage droughts, due to their multi-faceted nature.Usually, drought does

Author: Rebecca Huss-Ashmore
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000124304
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
Originally published in 1990. Produced by the Task Force on African Famine of the American Anthropological Association, this is the first of a multi-part project dealing with the long-term and ongoing food crisis in Africa primarily at the level of local production-the microperspective. It offers a series of anthropological and ecological views on the cause of the current problem and on coping strategies used by both indigenous people and developmental planners. The three sections of this volume review current explanations for food problems in Africa, focusing mainly on production and consumption at the household level; they offer a number of perspectives on the environmental, historical, political, and economic contexts for food stress, and include a series of case studies showing the ways in which Africans have responded to the threat of drought and hunger. The extent of research and the degree of scholarship involved in the production of this volume recommend it to all persons concerned with this ultimately global dilemma, particularly those involved in planning and relief efforts.

Author: International Development Research Centre (Canada)
Publisher: IDRC
ISBN: 088936804X
Category : Water resources development
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Water Management in Africa and the Middle East: Challenges and Opportunities

Author: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Eastern African Sub-Committee for Soil Correlation and Land Evaluation
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.
ISBN: 9789251026755
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Author: Norman Myers
Publisher: IUCN
ISBN:
Category : Cheetah
Languages : en
Pages : 98

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Author: Justin Sheffield
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136540415
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
Drought is one of the likely consequences of climate change in many regions of the world. Together with an increased demand for water resources to supply the world's growing population, it represents a potentially disastrous threat to water supplies, agriculture and food production, leading to famine and environmental degradation. Yet predicting drought is fraught with difficulty. The aim of this book is to provide a review of the historical occurrence of global drought, particularly during the 20th century and assess the likely potential changes over the 21st century under climate change. This includes documentation of the occurrence and impacts of major 20th century drought events and analysis of the contributing climatic and environmental factors that act to force, prolong and dissipate drought. Contemporary drought is placed in the context of climate variability since the last ice age, including the many severe and lengthy drought events that contributed to the demise of great civilizations, the disappearance of lakes and rivers, and the conversion of forests to deserts. The authors discuss the developing field of drought monitoring and seasonal forecasting and describe how this is vital for identifying emerging droughts and for providing timely warning to help reduce the impacts. The book provides a broad overview of large scale drought, from historic events such as the US Dust Bowl and African Sahel, and places this in the context of climate variability and change. The work is soundly based on detailed research that has looked at drought occurrence over the 20th century, global drought monitoring, modelling and seasonal prediction, and future projections from climate models.

Author: Leonie Joubert
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780620839488
Category : Climatic changes
Languages : en
Pages : 52

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"The three-year drought that hit Cape Town was the local expression of the global climate change emergency. It shows what happens when the normal demands of running a city, with its many development challenges, collide with a climate 'shock' like this one. The lessons learned from how the City and its residents responded are relevant globally, as major cities around the world face growing populations and ever-shrinking resources in the face of a changing climate."--Back cover.

Author: Kurt Schwabe
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 940076636X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 510

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Book Description
Offering a cross-country examination and comparison of drought awareness and experience, this book shows how scientists, water managers, and policy makers approach drought and water scarcity in arid and semi-arid regions of Spain, Mexico, Australia, South Africa and the United States.