Examination of urban areas drought vulnerability. a teteven town case study

Climate and weather play significant role in the urban areas function. They impact on the social and economy life, on the environment and infrastructure, on the biodiversity. That`s why the occurrence of extreme or untypical events is a challenge. Droughts are part of these processes. They are prolonged events that can lead to serious harmful impacts. For this purpose of importance is the becoming of reliable knowledge about such behaviour that can serve as a base for the selection of appropriate prevention and mitigation measures. This is possible by the implementation of recent scientific studies in the area that refer best to local specifics. In help of professionals and decision makers in the area this paper focuses on the droughts phenomena in urban areas. It observes the problem as a part of the climateenvironmental nexus. In this context the droughts vulnerability is examined in an integrated way, considering the main aspects and scientific approaches for droughts diagnostics. To illustrate the process in the material are summarized the results of a droughts study for one Bulgarian town � Teteven, situated in the northern slopes of the central Balkan in the Beli Vit river valley. For this reason it is implemented an integrated set of drought indicators that can ensure in parallel the detecting of meteorological and hydrological droughts and to serve for droughts vulnerability evaluation.