The purpose of a drought plan is to reduce risk and, therefore, economic, social, and environmental impacts. This price tag seems inconsequential in comparison to the impacts associated with drought. Legal constraints can include water rights, existing public trust laws, requirements for public water suppliers, liability issues, and so forth. In drought planning, making the transition from crisis to risk management is difficult because, historically, little has been done to understand and address the risks associated with drought. To solve this problem, areas of high risk should be identified, as should actions that can be taken before a drought occurs to reduce those risks.
Some areas are likely to be more at risk than others.
Vulnerability, on the other hand, is defined by social factors such as land use patterns, government policies, social behavior, water use, population, economic development, diversity of economic base, cultural composition, and so forth. The drought task force should address these issues early in the planning process so they can provide more direction to the committees and working groups that will be developed under Step 5 of the planning process.