Review by Choice Review
There are numerous definitions for drought: meteorological, socioeconomic, hydrological, and agricultural. Despite the global importance of agricultural drought, which impacts food availability and threatens economies, surprisingly little has been written about monitoring and predicting droughts. Filling a void in the literature, the editors seek to address the complexities of defining, remotely detecting, and describing the exact nature of agricultural droughts around the world. Several chapters explain the nature of internationally adopted drought definitions and describe the ways that agricultural drought can be predicted. Four chapters address agricultural drought detection techniques using satellite imagery; 22 of the 34 chapters consist of geographic case studies from the Americas, Europe, Russia, the Near East, Africa, Asia, and Australia. The final few chapters address international efforts to manage agricultural drought and speculate on the impact that future climate change might have on agricultural production and episodes of drought. The book is well written and edited; many of the chapters are mathematical, containing hydrologic and meteorological models, whereas others are more descriptive. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates and above; two-year technical college students. D. Goldblum University of Wisconsin--Whitewater
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
