Evaluating drought risk for permanent grasslands under present and future climate conditions

Over the past years, the changing climate has affected parts of Czech Republic and Austria by drought spells of the intensity and extend that was unprecedented in previous decades. These events had a significant impact on agricultural areas, especially on the grasslands. The idea behind the GIS monitoring relies on hypothesis that the effect of weather and climate conditions on the grassland production can be estimated by models that describe certain natural processes in a simplified manner and in spatialized form.