Economics of drought and drought preparedness in a climate change context Options méditerranéennes SERIES A : Mediterranean seminars 2010 Series, Vol. 95

During the last decades, droughts have become more frequent in the Mediterranean, West Asia and North African countries, and have had negative socio-economic impacts which are fiequently linked to a high exploitation of available water resources. The Fourth Assessment Report of the International Panel on Climate Change states that extreme weather events, such as storms and droughts, will most likely amplify in these regions.

Better representations of the physical, social and economic effects of droughts are needed to help governments become more conscious o( their actuel consequences and more efficient in coping with them. With these premises in mind, the 2nd International Conference on Drought Management was held in Istanbul (Turkey) trom 4th to 6th March 2010, under the title: Economics ot Drought and Drought Preparedness in a Climate Change Context.

The Conference was structured to present and exchange experiences and ideas on the analysis of drought trends and physical impacts, on methodologies for the evaluation of the economic impacts of drought and drought preparedness, and on proposals for best practices for coping and rnitigating drought economic effects.

People from 29 countries of ail the world attended the Con(erence, and the condusions and recommendations were presented to the 8th Meeting of the CIHEAM countries' Ministers of Agriculture, which took place in Istanbul on 8th March 2010. This volume contains 48 articles from the contributions that were presented, as well as the conclusions and recommendations of the Conference.