A European Drought Reference Database: Design and Online Implementation

Abstract

This report presents the structure and status of the online European Drought Reference (EDR) database. This website provides detailed historical information regarding major historical European drought events. Each drought event is summarized using climatological drought indices, hydrological drought indices, and user-generated drought impacts. The database currently highlights 11 drought events, from 1959 to 2007. In addition, an online tool is provided to query and view climatological drought indices for any day in the available historical record. The EDR database is tool designed to compile drought statistics in a usable manner and will continually improve as more data becomes available. It is our hope that the EDR database can become a standard reference tool which improve public awareness of drought issues and stimulate data collection, sharing, and analysis