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Meteorological, Agricultural and Hydrological Drought in the Dominican Republic: A Review

Reynaldo Payano-Almanzar1 * and Joselín Rodriguez2

1 Department of Hydrology and Water Resources Management, Santiago, Chile ICASS Spa

2 Coordinator of the Drought Resilience Project, FAO Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Corresponding author Email: reynaldopayano.a@gmail.com

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12944/CWE.13.1.12

In Dominican Republic, the impacts of the meteorological, agricultural and hydrological drought have been intensified in recent years due to the effect of ENSO and climate change, putting at risk agricultural and livestock production, in addition to food insecurity in several areas of the country, mainly those with less water availability. It’s estimated that 69.6% of the Dominican territory corresponds to arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas and that they are partially or totally affected by desertification and drought. The estimated cost of damage from droughts as a disaster from 1900 to 2011 was US$ 5 million, equivalent to 0.17% of the total costs for disasters in the country. In the period 2014 to 2015, the contribution to the Gross Domestic Product of the agricultural sector was reduced from 10.8% to 5.8% approximately, which increased the credit or indebtedness to the agricultural production in 14.6%, that is, around US$129 million. Montecristi, San Juan, Dajabón and Elias Piña are the most affected areas. Despite the difficulties encountered in the process of collecting data and information, a Digital Library and a Conceptual framework has been created -based on the background analysis- to facilitate future work and to continue understanding the drought. In the country there is a legal framework for prevention, mitigation and response focused on disaster risk management -storms, tropical, cyclones, floods and others- however, there are currently no public policies aimed at managing droughts and the implementation of an early warning system for this hydrological phenomenon. Finally, there is evidence of the investment made in projects linked to drought and plans developed by various institutions that seek to investigate the drought and offer solutions to current problems.

Drought; Desertification; Dominican Hydrology; Hydrological Phenomenon; Drought Resilience

Copy the following to cite this article:

Payano-Almanzar R, Rodriguez J. Meteorological, Agricultural and Hydrological Drought in the Dominican Republic: A Review. Curr World Environ 2018;13(1). DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.12944/CWE.13.1.12

Copy the following to cite this URL:

Payano-Almanzar R, Rodriguez J. Meteorological, Agricultural and Hydrological Drought in the Dominican Republic: A Review. Curr World Environ 2018;13(1). Available from: http://www.cwejournal.org?p=1074/

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