Classification of Drought Severity

The environmental response to drought can help define the drought's functional severity.

Native Vegetation	Drought Resistant Vegetation	Areas Devoid of Plant Cover	Drought Severity
abundant and growing	subpopulation	minimal	none
most susceptible cease to grow	continues to grow	minimal	mild
dying off	dominant form	small areas	moderate
greatly reduced	reduced, with only most drought resistant forms showing any growth	large areas	severe
none	greatly reduced	extensive	extreme

where:

• Some additional measures might be affect on trees (loss of leaves, etc.) and risk of fire.

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