Introduction

Droughts as a natural phenomenon are the lack of sufficient precipitation (below long term average) over an area, which adversely affect various economic sectors in a region. Reductions in agricultural production, hydro­ power generation, urban and rural water supplies and industrial outputs are some negative effects of drought. Continuous droughts stretching over several years in different parts of the country have significantly affected the national economy and productivity. Climate change and its effects on water resources as well as people live­ lihood is a major global concern. Water scarcity is already a major problem for the poor countries and the changes in rainfall and temperature induced by climate change will likely make this worse. Drought Manage­ ment and Climate Change Research Department carries a number of activities for managing water resources in order to address the ever increasing water resources problems. Therefore, appropriate watershed manage­ ment could be one of the tools to cope with climate change and improve the management of scarce water resources.

Objectives

Objectives of Drought and Climate Change Research Department are reviewing and performing research on achieving the updated knowledge and techniques in the area of drought and climate change management. Researches on adaptation, water scarcity, effects of drought and climate change on agricultural sustainability, identifying and developing methods for better management of drought and climate change management are among the main tasks of this department

Principal research topics and pivots

Carrying out the applied research in order to develop new methods for monitoring and prediction of agricultural drought, Developing agricultural  drought  risk  management  methods  and  providing  optimal  and  appropriate  guidelines  for  climatic, economic, social, cultural in agricultural conditions for each region,

Identifying and developing methods for monitoring types of drought and climate change and their effects on agricultural and natural resources sustainability in the country,

Controlling and reducing drought effects and developing the modification policies for agricultural implements and research sectors based on research findings,

Studying adaptation programs on climate change and its effects on water resources, agriculture and natural resources, Providing appropriate solutions to reduce drought effects in order to maintain agricultural production and natural resources, Adaptation to water scarcity in different parts of the country,

Developing key strategies for reducing the effects of drought and climate change on agricultural products, natural resources, and rural communities,

Providing regulatory policies and strategies for executive and research organizations,

Providing appropriate solutions and modern methods for maintaining and developing water resources and water harvesting accord- ing to the climatic conditions as well as to control the consequences of their phenomena,

Drought monitoring, forecasting and risk management,

Comparative evaluation of carbon sequestration in relation to watershed management practices and reclamation operations, Detecting climate change using dynamical downscaling,

Drought forecasting by large scale climate signal and artificial neural network,

Agricultural drought risk management, development and implementation of a pilot plan for Alamoot region in Ghazvin Province.