Abstract. Drought is a natural hazard that can cause a wide range of impacts affecting the environment, society, and the economy. Providing an impact assessment and reducing vulnerability to these impacts for regions beyond the local scale, spanning political and sectoral boundaries, requires systematic and detailed data regarding impacts. This study presents an assessment of the diversity of drought impacts across Europe based on the European Drought Impact report Inventory (EDII), a unique research database that has collected close to 5000 impact reports from 33 European countries. The reported drought impacts were classified into major impact categories, each of which had a number of subtypes. The distribution of these categories and types was then analyzed over time, by country, across Europe and for particular drought events. The results show that impacts on agriculture and public water supply dominate the collection of drought impact reports for most countries and for all major drought events since the 1970s, while the number and relative fractions of reported impacts in other sectors can vary regionally and from event to event. The analysis also shows that reported impacts have increased over time as more media and website information has become available and environmental awareness has increased. Even though the distribution of impact categories is relatively consistent across Europe, the details of the reports show some differences. They confirm severe impacts in southern regions (particularly on agriculture and public water supply) and sector-specific impacts in central and northern regions (e.g., on forestry or energy production). The protocol developed thus enabled a new and more comprehensive view on drought impacts across Europe. Related studies have already developed statistical techniques to evaluate the link between drought indices and the categorized impacts using EDII data. The EDII is a living database and is a promising source for further research on drought impacts, vulnerabilities, and risks across Europe. A key result is the extensive variety of impacts found across Europe and its documentation. This insight can therefore inform drought policy planning at national to international levels.

Abstract. Drought is a natural hazard that can cause a wide range of impacts affecting the environment, society, and the economy. Assessing and reducing vulnerability to these impacts for regions beyond the local scale, spanning political and sectoral boundaries, requires systematic and detailed data regarding impacts. This study presents an assessment of the diversity of drought impacts across Europe based on the European Drought Impact report Inventory (EDII), a unique research database that has collected close to 5000 impact reports from 33 European countries. The reported drought impacts were classified into major impact categories, each of which had a number of subtypes. The distribution of these categories and types was then analyzed over time, by country, across Europe and for particular drought events. The results show that impacts on agriculture and public water supply dominate the collection of drought impact reports for most countries and for all major drought events since the 1970s, while the number and relative fractions of reported impacts in other sectors can vary regionally and from event to event. The data also shows that reported impacts have increased over time as more media and website information has become available and environmental awareness has increased. Even though the distribution of impact categories is relatively consistent across Europe, the details of the reports show some differences. They confirm severe impacts in southern regions (particularly on agriculture and public water supply) and sector-specific impacts in central and northern regions (e.g. on forestry or energy production). As a text-based database, the EDII presents a new challenge for quantitative analysis; however, the EDII provides a new and more comprehensive view on drought impacts. Related studies have already developed statistical techniques to evaluate the link between drought indices and impacts using the EDII. The EDII is a living database and is a promising source for further research on drought impacts, vulnerabilities, and risks across Europe. A key result is the extensive variety of impacts found across Europe and its documentation. This data coverage may help drought policy planning at national to international levels.

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Collembola communities were sampled along a gradient of soil-use intensification in a typical Mediterranen landscape dominated by cork-oak. This gradient ranged from a land-use unit (LUU1) dominated by closed oak forest with minimum intervention to an unit entirely composed of a monoculture crop submitted to frequent anthropogenic disturbances (LUU6), passing through LUUs with managed woodland (LLU2) or dominated by open cork-oak areas and pastures (LUU3 and LUU5). The Collembola community in the overall area was dominated by a few abundant species, mainly Isotomidae, present in almost all units. Abundance, diversity and species richness decreased along the gradient, with the agricultural site presenting an impoverished community. Diversity descriptors were positively and significantly correlated with habitat diversity, measured on the basis of the proportion of the different soil-use types present at each land-use unit. Multivariate analysis revealed changes in Collembola community composition between the LUUs, with LUU6 detaching from the rest. LUU1 and LUU2, despite the less diverse community of the latter, formed a separate group from the remaining two units (LUU3 and LUU5). Species composition in all these units was mainly determined by soil-use types present at each LUU (open cork-oak land and pastures vs. closed cork-oak areas), the proportion of the different soil-use types and the different management practices adopted for each soil use. Overall analysis revealed that Collembola reacted to changes in the landscape structure, with community composition giving a more robust response than diversity indices.

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