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Methods to Assess Costs of Drought Damages and Policies for Drought Mitigation and Adaptation: Review and Recommendations

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Abstract

This article examines available methods for assessing all types of drought costs, including both damage costs and costs arising from adopting policy measures to encourage mitigation of, and adaptation to, droughts. It first discusses damage costs, distinguishing between direct, indirect and non-market costs. Then it examines the suitability of existing methods for estimating drought costs in different economic sectors, their underlying theoretical assumptions, complementarity between different methods, and conditions relevant for their application. The latter include precision, ability to deal with future climate change risks, data needs and availability, and required financial and human resources. The article further considers potential policies for drought mitigation and adaptation and different cost types associated with them. It ends with providing recommendations for good practices regarding the use of methods as well as drought mitigation and adaptation policies.

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Acknowledgments

This paper is based on a report (Logar and van den Bergh 2011), written in the context of the EU 7th Framework Programme project ConHaz (Costs of Natural Hazards). We thank the partners in this project and the participants of the drought expert workshop “Assessing the Costs of Droughts” (held in February 2011) for valuable comments and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici Cn - Campus UAB, 08193, Bellaterra, Spain

    Ivana Logar & Jeroen C. J. M. van den Bergh

  2. Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (EAWAG), Überlandstrasse 133, 8600, Dübendorf, Switzerland

    Ivana Logar

  3. Department of Economics and Economic History, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici B - Campus UAB, 08193, Bellaterra, Spain

    Jeroen C. J. M. van den Bergh

  4. ICREA, Barcelona, Spain

    Jeroen C. J. M. van den Bergh

  5. Faculty of Economics and Business Administration & Institute for Environmental Studies, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1087, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Jeroen C. J. M. van den Bergh

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  1. Ivana Logar
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Correspondence to Ivana Logar.

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Logar, I., van den Bergh, J.C.J.M. Methods to Assess Costs of Drought Damages and Policies for Drought Mitigation and Adaptation: Review and Recommendations. Water Resour Manage 27, 1707–1720 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-012-0119-9

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