General perspective on Drought Quantification and Mitigation in Sub-Saharan Africa,

Abstract

Since precipitation is the primary input to the watershed system, unavailability of precipitation in a good measure could lead to all forms of drought. Sub Saharan nations of Africa have been victim of droughts, hence there is need to quantify and mitigate against drought challenges with appropriate strategies to reduce vulnerability. Since there is no single universal technique to quantify drought severity, appropriate drought indices based on empirical methods and mathematical models can be deployed to chracterise and zone drought field. Specialized indices such as Standardised precipitation index (SPI), Standardised precipitation anomaly index (SPAI) among others, having relevant evaluation criteria such as robustness, tractability, transparency, sophistication, extendability and dimensionality are usually deployed for quantification of drought. More so, modern modeling techniques that uses extreme learning machines (ELM) and artificial neural network (ANN) as well as fuzzy inference system to predict Effective Drought Index (EDI) have also been employed. In addition to considering the dynamics of climate change and its apportionment impacts, it has become increasingly necessary that analysis of drought should take into cognizance the need for cultic variable index model, unlike the most common use of rainfall-based indices. Besides, for effective drought quantification, finding across the sub-Saharan Africa call for the drought monitoring and early warning systems which are good tools that will help in designing drought mitigation strategies. This paper highlighted different ways of monitoring and mitigating the occurrence of droughts that can be useful in Africa.