Droughts | General Science

Droughts | General Science | CSS

Introduction:

It is a kind of phenomenon where less than expected rainfall occurs. Its intensity varies and on this variation we have its following types:

Types of Droughts:

(1) Meteorological Drought: (Totally dependent on Rain)

(i) Excessive Rainfall: More than 120% rainfall.

(ii) Normal Rainfall: Ranging from 80% to 120% rainfall.

(iii) Deficient Rainfall: Ranging from 60% to 80% rainfall.

(iv) Scanty Rainfall: Less than 60% rainfall.

So the Deficient Rainfall or Scanty Rainfall causes serious Meteorological Droughts.

(2) Hydrological Droughts: (Depletion of Ground Water)

It focuses on the depletion of the ground water. Water can be classified as either ground water or surface water. If the ground water table goes down, the water that is being pumped by tube wells etc would cause numerous problems, so that is depletion of the ground water is a major threat and would lead to Hydrological Droughts.

(3) Agricultural Drought:

If there is inadequate soil moisture it would lead to Agricultural Drought, as a result it would affect the growth of crops.

(4) Soil Moisture Drought:

If the soil moisture is less than normal or expected it would lead to cracking of the soil that is called soil moisture drought.

(5) Socio-Economic Drought:

Socio-Economic droughts affect the food availability in a particular region.

(6) Famine:

Famine is situation when mass starvation occurs. There are thousands of millions of people could be affected under Famine.

(7) Ecological Drought:

Ecological drought is environmentally induced stress that affects the region.

Causes of the Droughts:

(i) Less Rainfall.

(ii) Delay in Monsoon.

(iii) Frequent Breakdown in Monsoon.

(iv) Early withdrawal of Monsoon.

Effects of the Droughts:

(i) Physical Effects: reduced soil moisture – surface runoff – etc.

(ii) Agricultural Effects: decrease in crop production – decrease in biomass.

(iii) Socio-Economic Effects: shortage of food - mass starvation – Social stress – migration etc

Drought Management:

It ensures entitlement to produce food so as to remove the need for adhoc relief project. Reliefs on hydro-agriculture indicators, like rainfall, water level of reservoirs & progress of cropping pattern to detect early signs of developing droughts situation.

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