摘要：Droughts are multidimensional hazards that can lead to substantialenvironmental and societal impacts. To understand causes and impacts,multiple perspectives need to be considered. Many studies have identifiedpast drought events and investigated drought propagation from meteorologicaldroughts via soil moisture to hydrological droughts, and some studies haveincluded the impacts of these different types of drought. However, it is notcertain whether the increased frequency and severity of drought events inthe past decade is unprecedented in recent history. Therefore, we analyzedifferent droughts and their impacts in a regional context using amultidisciplinary approach. We compile a comprehensive and long-term dataset to investigate possible temporal patterns in drought occurrence andplace recent drought events into a historical context. We assembled adataset of drought indices and recorded impacts over the last 218 years insouthwestern Germany. Meteorological and river-flow indices were used toassess the natural drought dynamics. In addition, tree-ring data andrecorded impacts were utilized to investigate drought events from anecological and social perspective. Since 1801, 20 extreme droughts have been identified as common extreme events when applying the different indices. Allevents were associated with societal impacts. Our multi-dataset approachprovides insights into similarities but also the unique aspects of differentdrought indices.
