Drought

Benjamin I. Cook brings together climate science, hydrology, and ecology to provide a synthetic overview of drought and its environmental and social consequences. Drought is a critical interdisciplinary text that will be essential reading for a broad range of students in earth science and environmental and sustainability studies.

Benjamin I. Cook is a research scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. He also teaches on drought and climate science in Columbia’s School of Professional Studies.

Julio L. Betancourt, visiting scientist, Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center:
Cook’s tome is a first-principles, comprehensive, and up-to-date exposition of drought, including its drivers and consequences, by a major player working at the cutting edge of interdisciplinary science. The book is perfectly organized, written, and illustrated, with the early chapters on hydrology and climate laying the needed groundwork for the reader to truly appreciate the later chapters on the history and future of drought and its impacts. In my estimation, this is easily the most important and useful book ever published on the phenomenon of drought.

Jonathan T. Overpeck, William B. Stapp Collegiate Professor and Samuel A. Graham Dean of the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability:
Drought, aridity, and hydroclimatic stress are major concerns worldwide, and climate change is already making the situation worse. This book provides a foundation that many—whether interested in the basic science, the human impacts, or the impacts on natural systems—will find useful. Rarely are relevant insights from the recent geologic past woven together so well with knowledge gained from the instrumental and satellite era to illuminate the challenges that lie ahead. The evidence provided in this book highlights how serious the threat to both humans and nature will be. A must-read.

Brian Wardlow, director and professor, Center for Advanced Land Management Information Technologies and the School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln:
This book presents an interesting, multidisciplinary perspective on the various dimensions of drought, which is a complex natural hazard of global importance.