1. Introduction -- PART I: Agronomy, Irrigation Technology, and Water Supply -- 2. Adapting Irrigated Agriculture to Drought in the San Joaquin Valley of California -- 3. Impact of Drought on Adelaide’s Water Supply System: Past, Present and Future -- 4. Living with Drought in the Irrigated Agriculture of the Ebro Basin (Spain): Structural and Water Management Actions -- 5. Irrigation and Drought in a Southern Australian Climate that is Arid, Variable, and Changing -- 6. Irrigation Associations Coping with Drought: The Case of Four Irrigation Districts in Eastern Spain -- 7. Crop Choices with Limiting Water Supplies: Deficit Irrigation and Sensitive Crop Growth Stages -- 8. Drought Adaptation Measures and Risk Tolerance of Commercial, Small-Scale and Subsistence Maize Farmers in the Free State and Northwest Province of South Africa -- PART II: Ecological Impacts of Drought -- 9. Impacts of Water Scarcity and Drought on Iberian Aquatic Ecosystems -- 10. Ecological Responses and Interactions with Drought in the Southwestern United States -- 11. Agriculture, Water Mismanagement and Ecosystem Transformations in the Cuatrociénegas Valley in the Chihuahuan Desert, Mexico -- 12. The Murray-Darling Basin: Ecosystem Response to Drought and Climate Change -- PART III: Hydrology and Water Resource Systems -- 13. Drought Planning and Management in the Júcar River Basin, Spain -- 14. Drought as a Catalyst for Change: A Case Study of the Steenkoppies Dolomitic Aquifer -- 15. Evaluation of Groundwater Flow System Functioning in Mexico to Reduce Drought Impacts -- 16. Drought and Climate Change in the Murray-Darling Basin: A Hydrological Perspective -- 17. Climate Change Impacts on California’s Water Resources -- PART IV: Economic Considerations and Drought -- 18. Water Scarcity and Droughts in Spain: Impacts and Policy Measures -- 19. Modeling Economic-Engineering Responses to Drought – The California Case -- 20. Principles for Economically Efficient and Environmentally Sustainable Water Markets: The Australian Experience -- 21. Drought Management Strategies in South Africa and the Potential for Economic Policy Instruments -- PART V: Water Management and Policy -- 22. Some Considerations Regarding Water Management in Mexico: Towards an Integrated Management System -- 23. Water Scarcity and Drought Management in the Ebro Basin -- 24. Responding to Extreme Drought in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia -- 25. Potential Political Impacts in Southern California of Drought-Related Water Availability and Rate Increases -- 26. Drought and its Role in Shaping Water Policy in Australia -- PART VI: Conclusion -- 27. Summaries and Considerations.

Offering a cross-country examination and comparison of drought awareness and experience, this book shows how scientists, water managers, and policy makers approach drought and water scarcity in arid and semi-arid regions of Spain, Mexico, Australia, South Africa and the United States.   Efficiently mitigating or coping with the effects of drought requires an understanding of the biophysical aspects of drought, including the hydrologic and ecologic elements, as well as the technical, economic, and policy aspects.  Therefore, the editors have gathered an international group of expert contributors from a wide span of disciplines, including agronomy, ecology, economics, hydrology and irrigation technology. The book arises from a 2010 conference entitled International Drought Symposium: Integrating Science and Policy, which was organized by the Water Science and Policy Center at the University of California-Riverside.   The contents are organized in broad sections: Agronomy, Irrigation Technology, and Water Supply; Ecological Impacts of Drought; Hydrology and Water Resource Systems; Economic Considerations and Drought and Water Management and Policy. The concluding section provides an in-depth comparison of drought experiences, descriptions and methods highlighting different approaches and experiences from integral disciplines across a multitude of countries. It is the editors’ intention to enhance our understanding of the ways that physical, institutional and economic factors impact the effectiveness of one policy instrument relative to another.   Drought in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions: A Multi-Disciplinary and Cross-Country Perspective goes a long way toward improving our fundamental understanding of the interactions between physical impacts of drought, and the effectiveness of mitigation policies on the economic consequences of droughts.