The increasing risk of severe droughts and water shortages emphasizes the need for an integrated approach to drought mitigation. However, effective tools for the implementation of such an approach have not been available till now. This book contributes to an improved preparedness for drought in water supply systems, providing tools useful for a better decision making process in drought management. It presents methods and software features of a Decision Support System (DSS) developed within a European research project and consists of three main parts. The first part deals with the advanced techniques for hydrological drought identification and monitoring; the second analyses the successful use of climate-crop-soil models in defining deficit irrigation strategies; the third provides tools for improving the operation of irrigation supply reservoirs. All methods are embedded in a user-friendly DSS package that has been applied in several Case Studies of Mediterranean countries (Portugal, Italy, Tunisia, Jordan and Syria) and whose results are also compared.

Significant vulnerability of water systems to drought is a common issue of water resources management in Mediterranean regions. This is due both to the increasing occurrence and severity of drought events and to the growing demand for municipal, tourist, and agricultural uses. The INCO-DC project entitled "A Decision Support System for Mitigation of Drought Impacts in the Mediterranean Regions" (DSS DROUGHT) addresses this issue, contributing to an improved management of water supply systems for irrigation, which represents the most consumptive sector of water resources uses in the Mediterranean region. In order to develop a comprehensive approach toward improved operation of irrigation systems under drought conditions, the project was developed around the following five main, strictly interconnected tasks: Identification of drought characteristics at a site and over a region Modelling irrigation management under conditions of water scarcity Modelling operation of water supply systems under drought conditions Integration of the developed methodologies within a Decision Support System software package Definition of requisites for Drought Watch Systems The research resulted in an advancement of knowledge through in-depth analysis of innovative methodologies, the development of tools to help decision-makers in coping with droughts through the implementation of the developed procedures in software packages, and the application of these tools to the case-studies identified by partners in their countries."