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Water Resources

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Drought Assessment

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Abstract

Rainfall contributes to an estimated 65% of global food production, while water for irrigation provides the remaining 35% for the 17% of total agriculture area of the world. Rainfall alone is not sufficient to grow crops and the food production in rain-fed areas as its daily/monthly/annual variation is significant. Failing rains result in droughts and water/crop yield deficits, while the excessive rains cause flooding and crop losses. It is estimated that on an average, 45% of water is used by the crop, with an estimated 15% lost in the water conveyance system, 15% in the field channels and 25% in inefficient field applications (FAO, 1994). Most of the water loss (40%) occurs at farm and field level that has a direct effect on crop production due to in adequate water supplies causing water stress or excessive water and resulting in reduced growth and leaching of plant nutrients. Water scarcity is expressed as the ratio between water demand or withdrawal and water availability. A threshold of 0.4 of water demand/availability ratio is often taken as indicator for Severe Water Scarcity. Overview of the methods and their utility in the drought assessment scenario is highlighted in this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center of Studies in Resources Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India

    R. Nagarajan

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  1. R. Nagarajan
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© 2009 Capital Publishing Company

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Nagarajan, R. (2009). Water Resources. In: Drought Assessment. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2500-5_3

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