Towards a resilient drought management system

Abstract

Drought is considered an insidious, complex and multidisciplinary phenomenon due to many interacting influences. This paper focusses on the specific situation in Flanders, Belgium. Although in Flanders, the annual precipitation remains stable, drought impacts are becoming more and more severe. This is partly due to increased water demand, changed water use patterns in combination with outdated legislation and reactive policies, not aimed at resilient water management. This paper identifies contributing elements, relations and interactions in the drought system of Flanders, through the actor relational approach and demonstrates how this approach might be implemented in the Flemish case. An actor relational approach would allow striving for a more resilient drought management system.

Keywords: resilience, drought, actor relational approach