Sustainable WEF Nexus Management : A Conceptual Framework to Integrate Models of Social, Economic, Policy, and Institutional Developments

Funding Information: This work was supported by the Decision Analytic Framework to explore the water-energy-food nexus in complex transboundary water resource systems of fast developing countries (DAFNE) project, which has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant Agreement No. 690268.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Flash droughts and their impacts—using newspaper articles to assess the perceived consequences of rapidly emerging droughts

Flash droughts (FDs) have attracted increasing attention in the past decade. They are characterised by a rapid depletion of soil moisture resulting from interactions between the soil and atmospheric conditions. To date, there is a lack of consistent FD definitions and an understanding of their socio-economic impacts. Here, we explore the relationship between biophysical FD conditions and the perceived impacts of FDs in Germany between 2000 and 2022. We measured perceived impacts by analysing consequences reported in newspaper articles (2000–2022) and online search behaviour using Google trends data (2004–2022). To characterise the physical process, we considered root zone soil moisture data. Our results show that FDs are becoming increasingly frequent in Germany, occurring once every two years on average. Despite the lack of knowledge from the general public regarding the phenomenon of FDs, the peaks of interest in drought impacts correspond to the physical occurrence of FDs across the country. We identified an average time gap of four weeks between FD onset and the reporting of perceived impacts. This gap is longer than the average duration of FDs’ onset. Consequently, our findings highlight that consistent monitoring of FD conditions and drivers is necessary to guarantee effective preparedness. As impact perception is too slow to allow the adoption of mitigation measures, FDs require new schemes for response measures compared with slowly emerging (conventional) drought events. The novel method also allows the consistent and impact-based validation of FD identification methods

Uncovering the Dynamics of Multi‐Sector Impacts of Hydrological Extremes: A Methods Overview

Hydrological extremes, such as droughts and floods, can trigger a complex web of compound and cascading impacts (CCI) due to interdependencies between coupled natural and social systems. However, current decision‐making processes typically only consider one impact and disaster event at a time, ignoring causal chains, feedback loops, and conditional dependencies between impacts. Analyses capturing these complex patterns across space and time are thus needed to inform effective adaptation planning. This perspective paper aims to bridge this critical gap by presenting methods for assessing the dynamics of the multi‐sector CCI of hydrological extremes. We discuss existing challenges, good practices, and potential ways forward. Rather than pursuing a single methodological approach, we advocate for methodological pluralism. We see complementary or even convergent roles for analyses based on quantitative (e.g., data‐mining, systems modeling) and qualitative methods (e.g., mental models, qualitative storylines). The data‐driven and knowledge‐driven methods provided here can serve as a useful starting point for understanding the dynamics of both high‐frequency CCI and low‐likelihood but high‐impact CCI. With this perspective, we hope to foster research on CCI to improve the development of adaptation strategies for reducing the risk of hydrological extremes