Managing drought and water scarcity in federal political systems

During the summer of 2015, droughts and water shortages affected federal countries ranging from Australia, Brazil, and Canada to the United States, South Africa, and India. Drought involves coordination challenges in federal political systems where national and subnational governments each play a critical role. By blurring key roles and responsibilities, droughts create stress 370tests for transboundary water governance, requiring intergovernmental coordination between states (known as horizontal coordination) and multilevel coordination between states and national governments (known as vertical coordination). These governance challenges increase the importance of conflict resolution and other institutional mechanisms to share risks and enhance resilience to severe, sustained drought events.