An integrated framework for strengthening local agriculture drought management

ABSTRACT Drought onset is a complex phenomenon to identify, as its impact is gradual and can have a vast spatiotemporal distribution. Increased food insecurity interlinked with pre-existing poverty-driven socioeconomic vulnerabilities is a major implication of agricultural drought. To address the multidimensional nature of drought risk, solutions utilizing synergistic tools are required. Interdisciplinary measures integrating scientific outputs with local-level socioeconomic data can be an effective approach to holistically address the multifaceted challenge of drought. Assessments of socioeconomic conditions are essential to improving disaster management, as functional capacities of state agencies and citizens' resilience levels are influenced by such conditions. The study selects Pakistan's drought-prone Balochistan province to introduce an integrated framework based on vulnerability and hazard exposure assessments for managing agricultural drought. Using data from the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement survey, an index is developed that quantifies the differential vulnerability in the districts of Balochistan. To identify the drought exposure on agricultural farmland, vegetation water content and root-zone soil moisture are simulated using the Coupled Land and Vegetation Data Assimilation System. The study shows that local drought management can benefit from an interdisciplinary approach that identifies linkages between socioeconomic vulnerability and scientific simulation outputs.