Sharp decline of diarrhea hospitalizations despite historical drought in Brazil: The potential role of local water supply and public health measures.

Severe droughts (SDs) present a risk to public health, particularly in terms of the proliferation of waterborne diseases, such as diarrhea. Because of climate change, the frequency of SDs is likely to increase, potentially straining traditional water supply systems. An 11-year period of SDs in Northeast Brazil, which commenced in 2012, reduced the capacity of 153 drinking water reservoirs to a mere 6.

Vulnerability of Amazonian forests to repeated droughts.

Extreme droughts have been recurrent in the Amazon over the past decades, causing socio-economic and environmental impacts. Here, we investigate the vulnerability of Amazonian forests, both undisturbed and human-modified, to repeated droughts. We defined vulnerability as a measure of (i) exposure, which is the degree to which these ecosystems were exposed to droughts, and (ii) its sensitivity, measured as the degree to which the drought has affected remote sensing-derived forest greenness.