Droughts affect ecosystems, economies, and societies in diverse and often interconnected ways. Understanding drought risk requires not only characterizing drought hazards and water scarcity, but also examining who and what is exposed, how vulnerability shapes impacts, and how societies respond and adapt. These dimensions interact across sectors and scales, with drought impacts evolving over time and being influenced by water use, management and other human activities, as well as by changing conditions such as land use and climate change.

This session will have Kerstin Stahl (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg) as a solicited speaker and it brings together interdisciplinary research across the different dimensions of drought risk, from drought impact monitoring and hydrological responses to impact assessments, exposure analysis, vulnerability studies and adaptation and risk management strategies. We welcome contributions focusing on individual dimensions as well as research exploring their interactions, feedbacks, and dynamics.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Dynamics, feedbacks, and socio-natural interactions of drought risks
- Drought (impact) monitoring, indicators, forecasting, and early warning
- Human responses and adaptive behaviour to drought and water scarcity
- Exposure and vulnerability assessments, including their dynamics
- Interactions between impacts across sectors (agriculture, forestry, energy production, livelihoods, among others) and scales
- Drought early action, preparedness, and adaptation
- Water management and allocation under drought conditions
- Water governance and decision-making
- Novel conceptual, data, modeling, and AI-based approaches for understanding drought risk

We welcome contributions from hydrology, geography, climate science, socio-hydrology, disaster risk research, water management, environmental governance, behavioral economics, and humanities.