Impact Assessment for the Most Recent Severe Drought in Bushehr Province

Drought Impact Assessment has always been the point of departure in managing drought, based either on crisis or risk management perceptions particularly in the context of naturaldisasters. However, lack of effective and credible drought impact assessment has widely declared by numerous disaster managers, policy makers and even scholars, not only in less developed countries but also in developed ones. Typical methods for such assessments,compared with other natural hazards, suffer seriously from inaccuracy and lack of attention, probably due to its creeping nature, complexity and wide array of consequences and outcomes in different sectors as well as the difficulties in detecting the exact onset andending times. One the one hand, the range of impacts assessed is limited and mainlyfocused on the agricultural sector and on the other hand assessments are prepared in theform of general and brief reports. While, in this type of hazard, despite its complexity compared to others, there are relatively long intervals in the chain of consequences which make management efforts more promising. This article used compiled documents and theRegional Water Company’s official correspondences to assess the impacts of the most severe drought experienced in the Bushehr province in recent decade (2007 and 2008), particularly related to water sector. The chain of consequences and critical factors exacerbating them as well as the management performances are evaluated too. The results showed that, regardless of the severity of droughts in successive years of the study, takingrisky water management decisions (due to the inevitable need for energy production during the preceding cold season) on the one hand and inconsistency of drought related policies issued by the central government with regional conditions, played a critical role in aggravating the consequences of drought in Bushehr province during the two years of studied.

Keywords:

Impact Assessment , Drought risk management , policies , Regional Water Company