MEACAM Research Report: Drought in Focus

“Drought in Focus” provides a high-level overview of agricultural drought in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, including recent trends and their impact on displacement. Field interviews were conducted in northeast Syria which provide examples of positive and negative coping mechanisms for agricultural drought in the region. The technical specification of the MEACAM agricultural drought prediction model and thresholding approach taken to identify agricultural drought are also outlined. 

The paper is intended to provide a broad overview of agricultural drought and its human impact, with an emphasis on identifying areas most vulnerable to below-average seasonal rainfall, which would benefit the most from the MEACAM platform’s agricultural drought predictions to inform an early warning and/or early action.  

“Drought in Focus” is one of four research papers for the ECHO-funded MEACAM project, which cover drought and flood hazards, hazard risk communication, and the early action and disaster risk reduction interventions that can be informed by data produced by the MEACAM platform.