Geospatial Analysis of Emerging Drought Risk in a Warming Climate

Flash droughts and drought-related compound events are the emerging extreme events, which have attracted increasing attention from the scientific community in recent years due to their destructive impacts on the environment, agriculture, and ecosystems. As the Earth’s climate continues to warm, the frequency and severity of such emerging extremes are expected to increase, posing a significant challenge to policymakers, water managers, and agricultural producers. However, little is known about the spatiotemporal evolution of flash droughts and the abrupt drought and pluvial transitions. The driving mechanisms of such emerging extremes also remain poorly understood. In this chapter, we aim to assess the emerging drought risks through geospatial analysis and to reveal the underlying mechanisms from the perspective of land-atmosphere coupling on a global scale. We find that flash droughts are becoming faster and abrupt drought and pluvial transitions are becoming more frequently, thereby posing a significant challenge for traditional drought monitoring and risk assessment. Furthermore, we find that the land-atmosphere couplings play an important role in the occurrence of both flash droughts and abrupt drought and pluvial transitions. Our findings advance understanding of emerging drought-related extremes and emphasize the need for effective mitigation and adaptation strategies to reduce the negative impacts of drought hazards.