Foreword
Natural rainfall variability is a recurrent characteristic of Mediterranean climate and intensive drought
events have been more frequent in the last four decades with significant damages derived from water
scarcity and low water quality at the local and national levels. The Mediterranean Region’s development
is strongly dependent on water resources availability, and the uncertainty derived from drought leads,
undoubtely, to a condition of underdevelopment and degradation. It seems likely that climate change
will be an additional stress in the process.
In this context, Mediterranean countries have adapted to their climate and have extensive legislation,
institutional capabilities, and technical resources to face drought. Nevertheless in most cases a
proactive drought management based on anticipatory planning is not implemented. It is not unusual to
observe a response to immediate needs during a drought period and to implement costly remedies
attending to balance competing interests. In many cases, this may not be an adequate response in
the long term nor does it contribute to lessen future drought impacts. There is a need to formulate
plans for drought management that shift from a reactive approach (crisis approach) to a proactive
approach based on risk analysis, adapted to the current natural and social resources and taking into
account the dynamics of the social and environmental pressures.
MEDROPLAN is a Project funded by the European Commission within the framework of the EuroMediterranean Regional Programme for Local Water Management. The Project is coordinated by the
Mediterranean Agronomic Institute – CIHEAM. The objectives of the MEDROPLAN Project are to
provide Guidelines for Drought Preparedness Plans and the Framework for the setting up of a Drought
Preparedness Network for the Mediterranean countries. The Guidelines have been elaborated following
a common methodology for the analysis of drought risk and drought management and have been
specifically formulated to address the physical, socio-economic, and environmental issues of the
Mediterranean countries. The Guidelines incorporate the scientific background and knowledge on
droughts, the meteorological, agricultural and hydrological drought aspects, their onset and end, their
frequency of occurrence, water resource availability and water demand in relation to the climate, the
water shortage observed and the impacts of water shortage caused by droughts in the six Partner
countries of the Project (Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Spain and Tunisia).
The MEDROPLAN Drought Management Guidelines are a tool to help and orient decision makers,
technicians and stakeholders to cope with drought through the design and application of pro-active
drought management plans. The Guidelines describe all the components needed in drought planning
and are aimed to be understood by a wide audience.
The Technical Annexes of the MEDROPLAN Drought Management Guidelines, that constitute the
present document, compile the technical and scientific results of the MEDROPLAN Project. They are
addressed to a more specialized public, scientists and technicians interested in drought issues and in
charge of dealing with drought problems in the water management and agricultural sectors. In the
present publication, the reader can find in-depth information on the different components which
constitute the drought planning methodology proposed by MEDROPLAN (the planning framework, the
organizational, methodological, operational and public review components), and a compendium of
examples of application that illustrate in detail and analyse some aspects of the Guidelines to specific
situations, and include the description of effective measures taken in the past.
All the information contained in the Drought Management Guidelines and in these Technical
Annexes can be consulted on the MEDROPLAN web page (www.iamz.ciheam.org/medroplan) and on
a CD that is enclosed in the Drought Management Guidelines.
We gratefully acknowledge the organization and supporting institutions, the members of the
MEDROPLAN team, and all the stakeholders that have participated in different ways in the Project, for
their valuable input.
Ana IGLESIAS, Antonio LÓPEZ-FRANCOS, Marta MONEO
Editors
Options Méditerranéennes, Series B, No. 58
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