Droughts, risk management and reliability

In many places of the world, droughts become normal but not frequent meteorological conditions. Some times, extended drought conditions are the origin of scarcity scenarios in water supply systems. These scarcity scenarios, many times produced by causes not related to climate, are real threats to the reliability of water systems and must be prevented and managed. Those scarcity episodes have been approached in different ways and there are no clear criteria to apply based on risk management techniques to assess the risk of scarcity or to manage them within a context of efficiency and sustainable use of resources. This paper shows some ideas and guidelines on how to integrate drought planning and operation in an efficient and sustainable water supply management.