Crops' exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity to drought occurrence

<p>In the context of sustainable agricultural management, drought monitoring plays a crucial role in assessing the vulnerability of agriculture to drought occurrence. Drought events are very frequent in the Iberian Peninsula (and in Portugal in particular), and an increase in frequency of thes...

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Main Authors: C. Alonso, C. M. Gouveia, A. Russo, P. Páscoa
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Copernicus Publications 2019-12-01
Series:Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences
Online Access:https://www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/19/2727/2019/nhess-19-2727-2019.pdf
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author C. Alonso
C. M. Gouveia
C. M. Gouveia
A. Russo
P. Páscoa
P. Páscoa
author_facet C. Alonso
C. M. Gouveia
C. M. Gouveia
A. Russo
P. Páscoa
P. Páscoa
author_sort C. Alonso
collection DOAJ
description <p>In the context of sustainable agricultural management, drought monitoring plays a crucial role in assessing the vulnerability of agriculture to drought occurrence. Drought events are very frequent in the Iberian Peninsula (and in Portugal in particular), and an increase in frequency of these extreme events are expected in a very near future. Therefore, the quantitative assessment of the natural-ecosystem vulnerability to drought is still very challenging, mainly due to the difficulties of having a common definition of vulnerability. Consequently, several methods have been proposed to assess agricultural vulnerability. In this work, a principal component analysis (PCA) was performed based on the components which characterize the exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity of the agricultural system to drought events with the aim of generating maps of vulnerability of agriculture to drought in Portugal. Several datasets were used to describe these components, namely drought indicators, vegetation indices and soil characterization variables. A comparison between the PCA-based method and a variance method using the same indicators was performed. Results show that both methods identify Minho and Alentejo as regions of low and extreme vulnerability, respectively. The results are very similar between the two methods, with small differences in certain vulnerability classes. However, the PCA method has some advantages over the variance method, namely the ability to identify the sign of the indicators, not having to use the indicator–component subjective relationship, and not needing to calculate weights. Furthermore, the PCA method is fully statistical and presents results according to prior knowledge of the region and the data used.</p>
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spelling doaj.art-7fde40998c2e461b8105f14e68b780442022-12-21T23:18:26ZengCopernicus PublicationsNatural Hazards and Earth System Sciences1561-86331684-99812019-12-01192727274310.5194/nhess-19-2727-2019Crops' exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity to drought occurrenceC. Alonso0C. M. Gouveia1C. M. Gouveia2A. Russo3P. Páscoa4P. Páscoa5Instituto Dom Luíz, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, PortugalInstituto Dom Luíz, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, PortugalInstituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera, Lisbon, PortugalInstituto Dom Luíz, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, PortugalInstituto Dom Luíz, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, PortugalEnvironmental Physics Laboratory (EPhysLab), Facultade de Ciências, Universidad de Vigo, Ourense, Spain<p>In the context of sustainable agricultural management, drought monitoring plays a crucial role in assessing the vulnerability of agriculture to drought occurrence. Drought events are very frequent in the Iberian Peninsula (and in Portugal in particular), and an increase in frequency of these extreme events are expected in a very near future. Therefore, the quantitative assessment of the natural-ecosystem vulnerability to drought is still very challenging, mainly due to the difficulties of having a common definition of vulnerability. Consequently, several methods have been proposed to assess agricultural vulnerability. In this work, a principal component analysis (PCA) was performed based on the components which characterize the exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity of the agricultural system to drought events with the aim of generating maps of vulnerability of agriculture to drought in Portugal. Several datasets were used to describe these components, namely drought indicators, vegetation indices and soil characterization variables. A comparison between the PCA-based method and a variance method using the same indicators was performed. Results show that both methods identify Minho and Alentejo as regions of low and extreme vulnerability, respectively. The results are very similar between the two methods, with small differences in certain vulnerability classes. However, the PCA method has some advantages over the variance method, namely the ability to identify the sign of the indicators, not having to use the indicator–component subjective relationship, and not needing to calculate weights. Furthermore, the PCA method is fully statistical and presents results according to prior knowledge of the region and the data used.</p>https://www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/19/2727/2019/nhess-19-2727-2019.pdf
spellingShingle C. Alonso
C. M. Gouveia
C. M. Gouveia
A. Russo
P. Páscoa
P. Páscoa
Crops' exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity to drought occurrence
Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences
title Crops' exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity to drought occurrence
title_full Crops' exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity to drought occurrence
title_fullStr Crops' exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity to drought occurrence
title_full_unstemmed Crops' exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity to drought occurrence
title_short Crops' exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity to drought occurrence
title_sort crops exposure sensitivity and adaptive capacity to drought occurrence
url https://www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/19/2727/2019/nhess-19-2727-2019.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT calonso cropsexposuresensitivityandadaptivecapacitytodroughtoccurrence
AT cmgouveia cropsexposuresensitivityandadaptivecapacitytodroughtoccurrence
AT cmgouveia cropsexposuresensitivityandadaptivecapacitytodroughtoccurrence
AT arusso cropsexposuresensitivityandadaptivecapacitytodroughtoccurrence
AT ppascoa cropsexposuresensitivityandadaptivecapacitytodroughtoccurrence
AT ppascoa cropsexposuresensitivityandadaptivecapacitytodroughtoccurrence