47th Public Lecture Series "Water Talk Lusatia - How to Continue with Water in the Region?"

Droughts have long played a minor role in public perception, although individual events such as in the summer of 2003 caused damages of €8.7 billion in Central and Southern Europe. Based on data up to 2014, average annual agricultural yield losses caused by water limitation have already been estimated at around €275 million/yr. However, droughts did not enter the public consciousness until 2018. Before that, drought was associated with at least semi-arid regions such as steppe areas with much higher average temperatures. That changed as extreme drought has since had far-reaching, multi-sectoral impacts. In addition to agriculture and forestry, power generation, industrial production, regional water supplies, cargo shipping, and tourism were all affected. Drought as a phenomenon was perceived by the population primarily through personal concern. Examples include withered lawns, drought damage to crops in one's own garden, and leaf coloration of one's own trees. In addition, headlines of gas stations without fuel made headlines in early November 2018. As a result, the price of fuel per liter rose by nearly 10 cents throughout Germany, and the price of heating oil reached a five-year high.

In Central Europe, heatwave challenges under climate change will intensify in the future, and with them drought challenges, especially in the topsoil. The good news for us, however, is that annual precipitation will not change significantly and only slight changes are expected in water availability and groundwater recharge. So, although Germany will remain water-rich in the long term, we will still have to adapt to changing drought extreme events.

Link for livestream:https://b-tu.webex.com/b-tu/j.php?MTID=m6afe842d1c497f8104b83cd35b042639

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