XEROCHORE is a Support Action – An Exercise to Assess Research Needs and Policy Choices in Areas of Drought – founded by European Commission

European Commission

The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....

 under the FP7-Theme 6, Environment (Including Climate Change

Climate change

Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...

), and it is aimed at assisting in the development of a European Drought Policy in accordance with the EU-Water Framework Directive (EU-WFD.

XEROCHORE SA compiles a Roadmap that comprises:

• a state-of-the-art review and identification of the research gaps in the natural system, in impact assessment, in policy-making and in integrated water resources management
  Water resources
  Water resources are sources of water that are useful or potentially useful. Uses of water include agricultural, industrial, household, recreational and environmental activities. Virtually all of these human uses require fresh water....
  
  ;

• an assessment of the possible impacts of droughts and guidance on appropriate responses for stakeholders.

An extended network of experts gathers inputs for the roadmap through focussed workshops, round table discussions, which integrate the various aspects, and a concluding conference.
A Core Group guides and facilitates the discussion and synthesis process, and eventually write the integrated roadmap. The project network consists of over 80 organizations including research institutes, universities, ministries, water management

Water management

Water management is the activity of planning, developing, distributing and managing the optimum use of water resources. In an ideal world. water management planning has regard to all the competing demands for water and seeks to allocate water on an equitable basis to satisfy all uses and demands...

 organizations, stakeholders, consultants, international organization

International organization

An intergovernmental organization, sometimes rendered as an international governmental organization and both abbreviated as IGO, is an organization composed primarily of sovereign states , or of other intergovernmental organizations...

s and programmes.

Project Description

In recent years large parts of Europe suffered from extreme drought, a phenomenon that likely will become more frequent and more severe, as predicted by the climate model

Climate model

Climate models use quantitative methods to simulate the interactions of the atmosphere, oceans, land surface, and ice. They are used for a variety of purposes from study of the dynamics of the climate system to projections of future climate...

s. This will lead to significant socio-economic

Socioeconomics

Socioeconomics or socio-economics or social economics is an umbrella term with different usages. 'Social economics' may refer broadly to the "use of economics in the study of society." More narrowly, contemporary practice considers behavioral interactions of individuals and groups through social...

 and environmental impacts and associated damages. There is therefore an urgent need to develop a roadmap toward a European Drought Policy, in accordance with the EU-Water Framework Directive

Water framework directive

The Water Framework Directive is a European Union directive which commits European Union member states to achieve good qualitative and quantitative status of all water bodies The Water Framework Directive (more formally the Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23...

 (WFD) and related EU Legislation and Actions. The aim is to mitigate and to adapt to droughts, and hence reduce the risks they pose in Europe .

The project network consists of over 80 organizations including research institutes, universities, ministries, water management organizations, stakeholders, consultants, international organizations and programmes. It includes key members of the European Drought Centre and the WFD-CIS Working Group on Water Scarcity

Drought

A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region...

 and Drought and representatives from overseas and neighbourhood countries, in particular around the Mediterranean Basin

Mediterranean Basin

In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin refers to the lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have a Mediterranean climate, with mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers, which supports characteristic Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub vegetation...

. The large number of organizations covering different aspects and geographic regions guarantee that all drought aspects will be covered. The drought network will be embedded in the already-existing European Drought Centre to reach the wider scientific and to provide research advice and policy support to the EC beyond the lifetime of this action.

Background and Objectives

In recent years large parts of Europe suffered from extreme drought, a phenomenon that may become more frequent and more severe as a consequence of climate change. If not addressed properly, the socio-economic and environmental impacts of droughts will be huge.
To inform European Drought and Climate Adaptation policies, the Xerochore assesses the existing knowledge about the physical causes, intensity, spatial and temporal patterns of droughts, and their social, environmental and economic impacts. Furthermore, it develops a catalogues of demand-and supply-side policies to manage droughts.
To this end a series of expert workshops, roundtable discussions and stakeholders consultation will be organised. A Core Group will synthesise the collected knowledge and produce Guidance Documents for drought management.

The Xerochore SA objectives are:

• To synthesize knowledge on past, current and future drought events;

• To compile a roadmap that provides a short to long term vision on research needs and steps forward towards supporting the implementation of drought management plans;

• To provide information on possible impacts of droughts and guidance for stakeholders in the area of planning, implementation and scenarios;

• To further extend and develop the drought network established as part of the European Drought Centre (EDC) to assess the international (inside and outside of Europe) state of the art in research related to droughts;

• To link up with non-EU experts (through network partners and members of the External Advisory Board) to ensure that the synthesis, roadmap and guidance to stakeholders includes background from other leading continents (e.g. USA, Canada, Australia) and to encourage them to become member of the extended EDC;

• To initiate a long lasting platform beyond this project through the network that communicates drought related research and policy making within the research community, water managers, policy makers and the wider public.

Organization of Work

The Xerochore SA is based on the involvement of 11 Partners (Core Partners) and a wider group of already identified partners as Network Partners (contributing to the review and synthesis). Also being open to more experts on a voluntary basis, the area addressed benefits from broadening the information collection as much as possible, by keeping the effort for coordinating the synthesis development in reasonable limits.
The Xerochore SA is related to five main areas corresponding to 5 work packages (WP1-5), addressing sectoral key topics for the final synthesis. A sixth work package deals with the management of the SA (WP6).
The five main areas (work packages) to be covered are:

1. WP1: Natural system (climate and hydrology), including physical causes, spatial and temporal development of historic droughts, anthropogenic influences, incl also impact of climate change on drought, development of basic elements for early warning systems, forecasting of drought;

1. WP2: Economic and social impacts of droughts and of research actions taken to mitigate and to adapt to the effects of droughts, incl. providing guidance for stakeholders;

1. WP3: Environmental impacts of droughts and of research actions taken to mitigate and to adapt to the effects of droughts, incl. providing guidance for stakeholders;

1. WP4: An appraisal of existing drought-associated policies and the research needs to develop a EU drought policy (Pan-European scale);

1. WP5: Implications of drought policies for integrated water management at the regional and national level.

The outcome of the WP's 1-3 provide then a possibility to integrate drought management both to its drivers (causes) and impacts as well as to possible consequences of drought management (WP5). The link of the drought management to WP4 (Drought policy) is dual, first to impose urgent fields of action in policy making, but considering at the same time constraints and restrictions as discussed under WP5.

Partners

The XEROCHORE Support Action are implemented by a Consortium of 11 Core Partners. The Consortium composition ensures interdisciplinary and multiplicity of skills in order to allow the achievement of the multifaceted project objectives and ensure a successful implementation of the outreach strategy by reaching all the different target groups addressed by the project activities.
The project network consists of over 80 organizations including research institutes, universities, ministries, water management organizations, stakeholders, consultants, international organizations and programmes.
The XEROCHORE Consortium, experienced in the different fields that lead toward a European Drought Policy, is well balanced as four main different partner types are represented:

International Recognised Research Centres (FEEM, WMC, NERC, CEMACREF, JRC): The involved International Research Centres contribute to long-term interactions with national and international meteorological services and will support the XEROCHORE roadmap on applied projects and consulting. These research centres enable sufficient consideration of practical needs and requirements for private sector markets, within the roadmap towards EU drought policy.

Academic Institutions (WU, UiO, NTUA): The involvement of these type of institutions together with similar Network Partners will ensure that the very first outcome of ongoing international academic research on different drought issues that is carried out by PhD students and postdocs (e.g. Aquastress, WATCH) will be integrated in the round table discussions that eventually will lead to the XEROCHORE roadmap for future research.

National Authorities (MATTM, MMA): The involved National Authorities contribute to the XEROCHORE project by interactions with national and international hydrometeorological services and will support the roadmap in consideration of institutional links and requirements from national authorities and governmental organisations.

International Organisation (JRC, IUCN): The involvement of International Organisations contributes to the embedding of international NGO's and support to policy making at EU and international level in consideration of environmental aspects and sustainable development.

Events

Xerochore First Workshop on
Drought and Natural System (Climate and Hydrology),
Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands, 15–17 June 2009.

Xerochore Second Workshop on
Socio-Economic and Environmental Impacts of Droughts,
Venice, 5–7 October 2009.

Xerochore Final Conference on
Supporting Drought Policies in Europe,
Brussels, 23–24 February 2010.
Participation is limited to space availability.