Droughts and Water Scarcity

What is Droughts and Water Scarcity?

Within Earth & Environmental Science, which covers our planet, its resources and ecosystems, and how people can protect the environment, this topic explains Droughts and Water Scarcity. Earth and environment topics show how the planet’s systems shape landscapes, climate and life, with models that make these processes visible.

Check that you can explain Droughts and Water Scarcity in your own words and give one example from everyday life. If you can do that, you have understood the core idea.

Understanding Droughts and Water Scarcity helps you explain the environment around you and weigh up how people can protect it.

Droughts and Water Scarcity in detail

A drought is a prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall, leading to water shortage. Types include meteorological (lack of rain), agricultural (soil moisture too low for crops), hydrological (low river and groundwater levels) and socio-economic (shortage affecting people). Causes include climate variation such as El Niño and climate change, and human demand.

Water scarcity is when demand exceeds the available supply, and billions of people face it at least part of the year. Effects include crop failure, famine, wildfires, conflict and migration. Responses include conserving water, efficient irrigation, reservoirs, desalination, water recycling, drought-resistant crops and early warning systems.

How the interactive helps you understand Droughts and Water Scarcity

Watch the cycle in the interactive. Use any sliders or buttons it offers to change the values and see how the cycle responds.

Before you change anything, predict the result. Then change one value at a time and check whether your prediction was right. This is a quick way to build a correct mental model of Droughts and Water Scarcity.

Real-life uses and examples

• Link Droughts and Water Scarcity to a real environmental problem and a possible solution.
• Use a diagram of Droughts and Water Scarcity to describe the steps of a process in order.
• Discuss how human activity changes Droughts and Water Scarcity, using a named example.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Presenting one cause as the only cause of an environmental change.
• Describing a process without the timescale it works over.
• Learning the definition without testing it. Use the quiz and the interactive to check that you can apply the idea.