Assistant Professor California State University Los Angeles, California, United States
Abstract Submission: Compound extreme events are defined as the combination of multiple drivers that contribute to natural, societal, or environmental risk. These events involve the interaction of physical processes and drivers across multiple spatial and temporal scales. Compound events frequently result in more severe impacts than individual extreme events occurring independently. Traditional methods for assessing extremes often focus on a single driver or consider only climate-related factors as the main contributors, which leads to underestimating and misrepresenting the overall risk. While significant research has been devoted to understanding climate as a driver in compound extremes, fundamental gaps persist in our comprehension of the human dimension as a non-climatic driver. Moreover, we currently lack a comprehensive explanation of human role both as a contributing factor and in mitigation capacity during compound extreme events. As climate change is anticipated to alter the frequency and intensity of compound events and their associated damages, it underscores the necessity of recognizing the human dimension to fully understand the limitations of resilience strategies. Among all compound extreme events, droughts deserve prioritization in studies due to the widespread impacts across multiple sectors. (i.e. drought potential to initiate cascading effects on other systems, and their complex interactions with other extremes like heatwaves which challenge existing mitigation strategies) Human activities such as over-extraction of groundwater, deforestation, and inefficient water management practices further exacerbate drought conditions, highlighting the need to integrate socioeconomic factors into drought risk assessments. Additionally, the capacity to mitigate and adapt to droughts varies widely across regions due to differences in infrastructure, governance, and resources. Understanding the human dimension is crucial for developing effective policies and interventions that enhance resilience. This study explores existing methods of assessing human dimension in drought studies, aiming to identify gaps and develop comprehensive approaches that integrate socioeconomic factors into drought assessments.
