First meeting [TOPIC: Droughts in southern Europe (Spain, Italy, and Greece)]

This will be our first meeting.
Come prepared for an open conversation about ideas, strategies and their impact in the world.

TOPIC
Droughts in southern Europe (Spain, Italy, and Greece)
Extreme droughts and floods hit Italy, Greece and Spain more than most other countries across the globe in the past 30 years, causing many deaths and high economical losses, according to the Climate Risk Index (CRI) published by NGO Germanwatch. More than 65,000 deaths were related to extreme weather events from 1993 to 2022 in the three Mediterranean countries, while economic losses amounted to more than 90 billion U.S. dollars. [source]
The 2022 heatwave was especially severe in these countries.
Spain: The rainfall was 28% less than the expected, affecting olive oil production and leading to the imposition of restrictions for the general population. [source]
Italy: The rainfall was, in average 22% less than expected, also leading to less snow, reduced agricultural yield, and other economic losses that reach the 1.75 billion. Several areas are at risk of recurrent crisis due to insufficient water supply. [Source1, Source2, Source3]
Greece: As the Greek government expands its infrastructure and connects more homes to the water distribution system, the increasing water demand and consumption (+20%-30%) worsens the already great vulnerability of the nation to droughts, with some sources reporting up to a 55% deficit in some regions causing the necessity of severe restrictions for water use. [Source1, Source2, Source3]
Extreme drought in these countries seem to be complemented by extreme rain during the winter season, however, the unpredictability of the rainfall and the damage that floods and droughts cause to the nation result in damage and deficiencies in the agricultural, industrial, environmental and social contexts.
· European Commission, Joint Research Centre. (n.d.). Current drought situation in Europe. European and Global Drought Observatories. https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/european-and-global-drought-observatories/current-drought-situation-europe_en
· Valo, M. (2024, March 19). Prolonged drought takes hold of Mediterranean region. Le Monde. https://www.lemonde.fr/en/environment/article/2024/03/19/prolonged-drought-takes-hold-of-mediterranean-region_6634622_114.html
· Lialios, G. (2024, December 18). Athens water use surges despite drought. eKathimerini. https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/environment/1256587/athens-water-use-surges-despite-drought/
· Euronews. (2024, July 29). ‘An entire region on its knees’: Italian politicians demand intervention as drought grips the south. https://www.euronews.com/green/2024/07/29/an-entire-region-on-its-knees-italian-politicians-demand-intervention-as-drought-grips-the
· Chenli Xue, Aurora Ghirardelli, Jianping Chen, Paolo Tarolli,
· Investigating agricultural drought in Northern Italy through explainable Machine Learning: Insights from the 2022 drought, Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, Volume 227, Part 1, 2024,109572, ISSN 0168-1699, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2024.109572.
· Alberto Montanari et al., Why the 2022 Po River drought is the worst in the past two centuries. Sci. Adv.9,eadg8304(2023).DOI:10.1126/sciadv.adg8304
· Ribbeck, B. (2025, February 12). Italy, Greece, Spain among top ten countries most affected by extreme weather – report. Clean Energy Wire. https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/italy-greece-spain-among-top-ten-countries-most-affected-extreme-weather-report