An Integrated Approach towards Drought Risk Reduction in Balochistan, Pakistan

Abstract

It is valuable for the policy makers to configure and assess the impact of drought in a particular area having arid climate, remote rural settlements and history of prolonged drought spells. This study endeavours to suggest the policy guidelines on drought risk reduction basing on the assessment of drought impact in the study area Balochistan Province and recommendations measures to innovate drought monitoring and reporting methods using. The drought assessment results and spatio-temporal projections spanning over a longitudinal period of 37 years comprising precipitation and remote sensing data acquired through Standardized
Precipitation and Vegetation Condition Indices (SPI & VCI respectively), are further deliberated to configure policy issues and finally streamlined to devise policy guidelines and measures to enhance drought risk reduction mechanism in the study area. Hence, the issues highlighted mostly draw out of lack of technological assistance, weaker focus on research and development towards drought assessment methods and a huge communication and information transfer gap between major stakeholders
and the drought coerced population, all compounding into the unified role of management. Therefore, the study identifies drought trends of past 37 years in the study area and tends to suggest measures to enhance drought assessment while recommending steps to strengthen drought early warning and communication mechanism.