Natural Hazards: Causes and Effects - Disaster Management Center ...

Once vulnerable areas have been identified, priority zones should be established. These zones
are normally the most marginal settlements, those most at risk from a drought. Once the priority
zones have been identified, comprehensive and integrated rural development programs should
be initiated. Among the usual activities are:
Agricultural improvements including modifying cropping patterns and introduction of droughtresistant
varieties of crops;
Rangeland management including improvement of grazing lands, and grazing patterns,
introduction of feedlots, and protection of shrubs and trees;
Water resource development including improved irrigation, and water storage facilities,
protection of surface water from evaporation, introduction of drip irrigation systems, and water
containment methods such as retention dams and subsurface dams.
Small storm retention dams can be built across drainage depressions or dry riverbeds to trap
water from occasional flash floods. Some of the water can be diverted into nearby depressions
to form temporary reservoirs. These provide temporary water for drinking and irrigation, and
seepage into the soil will replenish soil moisture and groundwater.
Subsurface dams are used to trap water in the sandy bottoms of dry riverbeds. A trench is dug
across the streambed down to a layer of impervious clay. The trench is then filled and packed
with clay to form an underground dam. When flash floods occur, a portion of the water will be
trapped in the sand behind the dam. Small wells can be dug by hand to reach the water.
Animal husbandry activities including maintaining smaller herds, eliminating unproductive
animals, and upgrading the quality and productivity of stock through improved breeding
practices.
Land-Use Planning
Another approach to reduce the impact of droughts on human settlements (including nomadic
communities) is to employ land-use planning techniques. Land-use planning in drought-prone
areas builds upon the information collected in the risk assessment.
Those lands identified as drought prone will benefit from controlled or restricted use. This
requires the assessment of such land to describe the degree of its drought-prone condition, its
present land use, the cyclical patterns of its land use, and land ownership. Land-use controls
similar to zoning regulations could be created and adopted by governing bodies. These controls
can include:
• numbers of livestock per unit area;
• maximum population density;
• limits on amounts of water taken from public water supplies for agricultural or industrial
use;
• authority to declare a state of emergency during which time animal herds are required to
be depleted or transported to nonemergency areas, more stringent water usage
allowances are imposed, etc.
Creating land-use planning recommendations or controls has typically been easier than
implementing them. Their implementation becomes feasible only when there is a political
authority and will to enforce the controls. Even then, public acceptance of the controls is
necessary for success in their implementation. Consequently, a set of land-use planning
recommendations needs to be linked to a program of public information to make the users of the