Building an operational drought framework

As the frequency of drought events continues to rise, there is an urgent demand for swift adaptive capabilities, coupled with a growing scientific knowledge base to effectively develop and implement them. To address this need, effective Climate Services are crucial for decision-makers to navigate and respond to the challenges posed by drought. In this context, drawing upon the experience gained from the CNR-IBE climate service 'Drought Observatory' and insights gained from direct engagement with decision-makers, we introduce a novel operational drought framework (ODF) providing a synoptic overview of drought at the basin scale. The aim of the ODF is twofold: on one site to increase the understanding of the underlying dynamics of severe droughts, including triggers, and drought onset and propagation to other components of the water cycle; on the flip side to support decision-makers' adaptive capacities by offering concise yet comprehensive and timely insights, ultimately improving their ability to make informed choices in the face of increasing drought occurrences.   The ODF is based on three pillars: i) a critical lecture of a set of Standardized Precipitation Index (or whatever SPI-like index) estimated across a continuous range of month-scales; this step allows for a better understanding of drought development and dynamics; ii) the computation of the Standardized Integrated Drought Index (