Brazilian experience on the development of drought monitoring and impact assessment systems

Brazil is not an exception to the increasing frequency and intensity of droughts in several countries. However, assessing the spatial and temporal identification of drought episodes is an extremely complex process. Drought indices are particularly useful for characterizing water deficit, as well as for monitoring the impact of climate variability on natural vegetation and crop robustness. Due to the different sources of information and methodologies that are used for drought indices, the monitoring of droughts from various indices may vary. It must be highlighted that any single index is enough for precisely depicting drought characteristics. Thus, the combination of different indicators that integrate various sources of information may help to better achieve consistent monitoring of drought risks and their characteristics.