Exposure of European ecosystems to drought

Due to the changing climate, many European regions are already facing more frequent, severe, and longer lasting droughts. Prolonged droughts can have severe impacts on water availability, especially in rivers, lakes and wetlands. As droughts directly affect the vegetation cover and reduce the ability to intercept solar radiation, prolonged droughts can also affect ecosystem and agricultural productivity. Droughts can also have cascading effects; for example, they reduce water levels in rivers and ground water, stunt tree and crop growth, increase pest attacks and fuel wildfires.

Droughts may severely impact the EU economy. In Europe, most of the losses caused by drought (~EUR 9 billion/year) affect agriculture, the energy sector and the public water supply. Extreme droughts in western and central Europe in 2018, 2019 and 2020 caused considerable economic damage. In 2018 alone, agricultural damages amounted to some EUR 2 billion in France, EUR 1.4 billion in the Netherlands, and EUR 770 million in Germany.

Climate change will continue impacting Europeans’ daily lives for the foreseeable future. Flooding, droughts, heatwaves and other climate-related hazards are becoming more intense, longer and more frequent. People everywhere need to be prepared for more days with extreme temperatures and for more extreme precipitation events. Projected changes in annual precipitation are expected to differ considerably across regions and seasons. In northern Europe, droughts is expected to become less frequent. Central Europe is likely to experience lower summer rainfall and harsher weather extremes as droughts and fire hazards. The Mediterranean region especially should be ready for hotter summers and more frequent droughts. With global warming at 3°C, droughts would happen twice as often and the absolute annual drought losses in Europe would increase to EUR 40 billion/year, with the most severe impacts in the Mediterranean and Atlantic Regions.

Once a drought occurs, it is often too late for preventive measures. That's why preparedness is the key. EU Member States develop drought management plans to ensure that timely action is taken at different levels, e.g. from water authorities to individual citizens. Such plans shall include both alert and emergency level notifications, facilitating cooperation between institutions and timely implementation of appropriate measures. In line with drought management plans, solutions to improve the resilience to potential drought impacts can be implemented by water users, citizens, administration, policy in several fields:

• Water use should be sharply reduced, especially in those areas where the water abstraction exceeds the sustainable supply capacity of the natural system (see Water scarcity conditions in Europe and Water abstraction pressures of economic sectors), e.g. by reducing leakages in the water supply networks, raising the water-saving measures and improving water efficiency.

• Proper water metering and controlling unauthorized water use must be in place.

• Water allocation rules shall help to decide on the use of the available water to obtain the lowest combined economic, environmental and societal damage.

• An informed decision requires real-time supporting data flows and models.

Water scarcity and droughts are addressed by several major European strategies: the 2021 EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change, the 2020 Circular Economy Action Plan and the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030.

The Water Framework Directive, adopted in 2000, provides a suitable framework to address water scarcity and drought. The directive promotes sustainable water use via the long-term protection of available water resources and the mitigation of the effects of droughts. EU countries implement integrated River Basin Management Plans required by the Directive, and some have adopted Drought Management Plans for vulnerable river basins. Water quantity management is also addressed through other EU regulations, such as the Regulation on minimum requirements for water reuse for agricultural irrigation, that establishes new rules to stimulate and facilitate water reuse in the EU, the Recast of the EU Drinking Water Directive, that addresses leakage in the water supply networks, the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (UWWTD) and the revised Industrial Emissions Directive.