Zeitschrift für Geographie und Naturkatastrophen
Offener Zugang

Abstrakt

Drought and Flood Extreme Events and Management Strategies in Ethiopia

Abirham Cherinet, Chala Tadesse, Tesemash Abebe

The review was done with the aim to assess climate extreme events especially drought and flood and the responses strategies. The review shows, there were 19 drought events in the period between 1900-2002, which is roughly once in six years and affected nearly 19.7 million people while 14 flood events occurred from 1960 to 2020 of which about 11 flood events occurred after 1990. From the review, frequencies and magnitudes of both disasters are increasing year by year in Ethiopia. Besides implementing the international initiatives, the Ethiopia government developed a climate-resilient green economy strategy in 2010 to lower emissions which is the major factor of climate change. Changing planting dates and species, planting drought-tolerant crops, soil, and water conservation practices, afforestation and reforestation, crop and livelihood diversification, agroforestry practices, small scale irrigation, mixed crop production, constructing ponds, and different water harvesting structures are the most common adaptation practice implemented before and after the drought extreme incidents. Constructing dykes, water diversions, temporary and permanent movement from flood risk-prone areas are among the strategies implemented by the government and community for flood extremes. Early warning systems and traditional agro ecological knowledge are the most sources of information about the future.