Understanding Your
Risk and Impacts
Impacts
of Drought
Social
Impacts
- Mental and physical stress (e.g., anxiety, depression, loss of security, domestic violence)
- Health-related low-flow problems (e.g., cross-connection contamination, diminished sewage flows, increased pollutant concentrations, reduced fire fighting capability, etc.)
- Reductions in nutrition (e.g., high-cost food limitations, stress-related dietary deficiencies)
- Loss of human life (e.g., from heat stress, suicides)
- Public safety from forest and range fires
- Increased respiratory ailments
- Increased disease caused by wildlife concentrations
- Water user conflicts
- Political conflicts
- Management conflicts
- Other social conflicts (e.g., scientific, media-based)
- Increased poverty in general
- Population migrations (rural to urban areas, migrants into the United States)
- Loss of aesthetic values
- Reduction or modification of recreational activities
Reevaluation of social values (e.g., priorities, needs, rights)
Public dissatisfaction with government drought response
Perceptions of inequity in relief, possibly related to socioeconomic status, ethnicity, age, gender, seniority
Loss of cultural sites
Increased data/information needs, coordination of dissemination activities
Recognition of institutional restraints on water use
Back to Impacts of Drought
© 2006 National Drought Mitigation Center