Eurac Research
Alpine Drought Observatory (ADO)
AgricultureDroughtStep 1
All official European Union website addresses are in the europa.eu domain.
See all EU institutions and bodies
An official website of the European Union | How do you know?
Environmental information systems
EN
JRC
European Drought Risk Atlas
The European Drought Risk Atlas represents a step towards multisectoral drought risk assessment that can support the development and implementation of drought management and adaptation policies and actions. It characterises how drought hazard, exposure and vulnerability interact and affect different but interconnected systems: agriculture, public water supply, energy, river transportation, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems. The atlas presents both a conceptual and quantitative approach to drought risk for these systems. The conceptual drought risk models (impact chains) are the result of a review of the literature in Europe and consultations with experts to construct visualisations of the most relevant drivers and how they interact to determine risk and impacts. The quantitative estimate of drought risk, based on machine learning techniques, maps drought risk at national and sub-national level in terms of annual average loss and probable maximum losses at specific return periods, both for current climate conditions, and for projections under different levels of global warming (+1.5 °C, +2 °C, +3 °C).
What you can do with it
Input
- Select a European country or subnational area.
- Choose a drought-affected system, including agriculture, public water supply, energy, river transport or ecosystems.
- Explore drought hazard, exposure and vulnerability information.
- Compare current conditions with +1.5 °C, +2 °C and +3 °C global-warming levels.
- Examine impact-chain visualisations and quantitative risk estimates.
Output
- European drought-risk maps and indicators.
- Conceptual drought-risk models and impact-chain visualisations.
- Annual average loss estimates.
- Probable maximum losses for selected return periods.
- Current and forward-looking results at national and NUTS2 levels.
- Multisectoral information covering interconnected human and ecological systems.
Use it to
- Understand how drought hazard, exposure and vulnerability interact.
- Compare drought risk across European countries and regions.
- Examine risks to agriculture, water supply, energy, river transport and ecosystems.
- Explore how risk may change at different global-warming levels.
- Support drought-management and adaptation policies.
- Identify sectors and locations requiring more detailed assessment or action.
Why is it relevant to climate adaptation
Moves beyond drought-hazard mapping by showing how exposure and vulnerability shape impacts across interconnected European systems. This helps users understand why the same drought can lead to different consequences for agriculture, public water supply, energy, transport and ecosystems. The combination of expert-informed impact chains with quantitative loss estimates makes the Atlas useful for both communicating risk pathways and comparing priorities under different warming levels.
Used in
- Multisectoral drought-risk assessment across Europe.
- National and NUTS2-level analysis of drought impacts.
- European drought-management and adaptation-policy development.
- Assessment of agriculture, public water supply, energy, river transportation, freshwater ecosystems and terrestrial ecosystems.
- Scenario analysis at +1.5 °C, +2 °C and +3 °C global warming through the JRC and Copernicus European Drought Observatory.
Language preference detected
Do you want to see the page translated into ?
Exclusion of liability
This translation is generated by eTranslation, a machine translation tool provided by the European Commission.
Exclusion of liability
This translation is generated by eTranslation, a machine translation tool provided by the European Commission.