Assessment of the Vulnerability to Drought and Desertification Characteristics Using the Standardized Drought Vulnerability Index (SDVI) and the Environmentally Sensitive Areas Index (ESAI)

Demetrios E. Tsesmelis, Christos A. Karavitis, Panagiotis D. Oikonomou, Stavros Alexandris and Constantinos Kosmas
Additional contact information
Demetrios E. Tsesmelis: Department of Natural Resources Development & Agricultural Engineering, Agricultural University of Athens, 11855 Athens, Greece
Christos A. Karavitis: Department of Natural Resources Development & Agricultural Engineering, Agricultural University of Athens, 11855 Athens, Greece
Panagiotis D. Oikonomou: Colorado Water Institute, Colorado State University, Campus Delivery 1033, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1033, USA
Stavros Alexandris: Department of Natural Resources Development & Agricultural Engineering, Agricultural University of Athens, 11855 Athens, Greece
Constantinos Kosmas: Department of Natural Resources Development & Agricultural Engineering, Agricultural University of Athens, 11855 Athens, Greece

Resources, 2018, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-19

Abstract: The degradation of natural resources at an intense rate creates serious problems in the environmental systems particularly with the compounding effects of climatic vagaries and changes. On the one hand, desertification is a crucial universal, mostly an anthropogenic environmental issue affecting soils all over the world. On the other hand, drought is a natural phenomenon in direct association with reduced rainfall in various spatial and temporal frames. Vulnerabilities to drought and desertification are complex processes caused by environmental, ecological, social, economic and anthropogenic factors. Particularly for the Mediterranean semi-arid conditions, where the physical and structural systems are more vulnerable, the abuse and overuse of the natural resources lead to their degradation and ultimately, if the current trends continue, to their marginalization. The scope of the current effort is trying to find any common drivers for the pressures of both processes. Thus, the vulnerabilities to drought and desertification are comparing by using the Standardized Drought Vulnerability Index (SDVI) and the Environmentally Sensitive Areas Index (ESAI). The indices are calculated from October 1983 to September 1996 in Greece. Greece is prone to desertification and it is often experiencing intense droughts, thus it presents an almost ideal case study area. The results may indicate that the most important factor for such procedures is the deficits in water resources, either due to lower than usually expected rainfall or to higher societal water demand.

Keywords: integrated water resources management; drought management; contingency planning; drought; desertification; vulnerability; indices comparison (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/8/1/6/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/8/1/6/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jresou:v:8:y:2018:i:1:p:6-:d:194039

Access Statistics for this article

Resources is currently edited by Ms. Donchian Ma

More articles in Resources from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().