Droughts, as a research topic, encompass the characterization, drivers, impacts, and prediction of prolonged periods of abnormally low water availability in the atmosphere, soil, and hydrological systems. Scientific study distinguishes meteorological, agricultural, hydrological, and socio-economic droughts, often quantified using indices such as the Standardized Precipitation Index or Palmer Drought Severity Index. Research investigates land–atmosphere feedbacks, large-scale circulation anomalies, soil moisture deficits, vegetation stress, and groundwater depletion, as well as the modulation of drought frequency, duration, and intensity by climate variability and anthropogenic climate change, with implications for water resources management, ecosystem functioning, and risk assessment.
On the banks of the Waal, the Dutch branch of the Rhine, swimmers are sunning themselves on a Nijmegen beach that didn't exist before the river level dropped a few months ago.
Environment
Aug 15, 2026
0
25
For thousands of years, farmers in the Pacific have lived in harmony with their environment. But rising temperatures, unpredictable rainfall and tired soils are testing even the most experienced hands.
Agriculture
Aug 14, 2026
0
32
Imagine you wake up one morning and look out your window. You see a red sky, hear a ferocious blast of wind and watch as tree branches creak and crack. No, the apocalypse has not descended on your local neighborhood. You've ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 14, 2026
0
10
Fields, parks and lawns across Europe have turned to straw this summer. Landscapes thousands of years old have been revealed as green outlines against yellow backgrounds, where ancient underground walls and ditches retain ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 13, 2026
0
38
A wildfire needs a name long before anyone knows what caused it. When the pines of the Gironde in southwestern France caught fire in July, the fire was reported within hours under the name of the ground it was burning. By ...
Environment
Aug 13, 2026
0
13
Smoke from Canada's July wildfires exposed people across Canada and the United States to unhealthy, very unhealthy or hazardous air for nearly 106 million person-days between July 15–17. Over the peak impact period of July ...
Environment
Aug 13, 2026
0
11
Heat waves are not all created equal. While some bring dry heat that rapidly dries out crops, others carry a lot of moisture that can prevent sweat from evaporating off the skin. In new research published in the journal Science ...
As a heat wave dries Germany's rivers, government ministers are at odds over what to do about it—re-engineer the waterways or restore them to their natural state.
Environment
Aug 13, 2026
0
16
Peatland fires in Indonesia pose a major threat to habitats, wildlife and people. That risk is exacerbated by the country's periodic El Niño warming phases, which bring prolonged drought.
Environment
Aug 12, 2026
0
11
The severe, drought-fueled fires now burning across much of the American West and Canada may be scorching forests so thoroughly that they cannot recover to the forests they once were, new research shows. A study by Colorado ...
Ecology
Aug 12, 2026
0
16
