Integrated proactive drought management in hydrosystems and cities: building a nine-step participatory planning methodology

Drought is a natural hazard with complex socioeconomic impacts and influences on human experiences. Preparedness is the only way a society can mitigate drought impacts but integrating participatory decision-making with hydrological modeling into a more comprehensive planning process is still a challenge. Here, we present a step-by-step methodology to guide the implementation of a participatory drought preparedness plan (DPP), specially designed for hydrosystems and cities scales. We highlight strategies to engage local stakeholders in constructing such plans and build trust in the process. We propose two types of drought preparedness plans: (1) Socio-technical–built only from the tacit knowledge of the system operators, which needs only two days to be ready; and (2) Socio-technical with modeling-intensive simulation—a more robust methodology that adds hydrologic and hydraulic modeling to the existing tacit knowledge. The participatory DPP methodology was developed and applied to hydrosystems and cities in a drought-prone area of Brazil. Our findings suggest that modeling was important, but not essential to assessing vulnerability scenarios and strategies. However, the simplified version can achieve satisfactory results even when data and resources are limited. We present the methodology as a nine-step participatory planning methodology developing a meaningful and convincing narrative that speaks to theory and practice.