Drought and Natural Resources Management in the United States : Impacts and Implications of the 1987-89 Drought

This book identifies the successes and failures of 1987–89 in the U.S., through detailed case studies focused especially on the summer of 1988, and examines what this diagnosis implies for the management of future droughts and other climate fluctuations.

The 1987-89 drought was a signal event in the evolving interrelationshipsamong climate, natural resources management, technology,and society in the United States. Over half of the country experiencedsevere to extreme drought by midsummer of 1988 (Figure 1.1). Lossesupward to $39 billion illustrate the continuing, perhaps growing,vulnerability of many natural resources and economic sectors to droughtand other climate fluctuations.Despite decades of crop breeding, water system development, andother improvements in climate-sensitive technologies, the droughtdemonstrated that the simple lack of "normal" rainfall still provokesserious disruptions in agriculture, water supply, transportation,environmental quality, and other areas. It can affect the health and wellbeingof millions of people and evoke billions of dollars in governmentaid.