Assessment of drought hazard, vulnerability, and risk: A case study for administrative districts in South Korea

• Drought risk was assessed by combining drought hazard and drought vulnerability.
• Drought hazard was quantified considering drought frequency and severity.
• Drought vulnerability was assessed by seven socio-economic factors.
• The maps provide fundamental information for the potential risk of regional drought.

This article presents a methodology for assessing drought hazard, vulnerability, and risk, using hydro-meteorological and socio-economic data. Though drought is a common natural disaster in South Korea, very little attention has been so far paid to preparedness of drought disaster, especially to spatial assessment of drought risk. A data-based framework for drought hazard and vulnerability was proposed in this study using a drought risk concept presented by the National Drought Mitigation Centre, USA. To quantify drought risk, Drought Hazard Index (DHI) was proposed based on the occurrence probability of drought from precipitation-based index and Drought Vulnerability Index (DVI) was proposed to reflect 7 socio-economic consequences of drought. The framework presented herein emphasizes the combined role of hazard and vulnerability in assessing drought risk and utilizes hydro-meteorological and socio-economic data to map the drought risk for 229 administrative districts across South Korea. The overall results demonstrate the effectiveness of the framework for the understanding of potential risk of drought in South Korea.