Documentary data and the study of past droughts: an overview of the state of the art worldwide Rudolf Brázdil1,2, Andrea Kiss3,4, Jürg Luterbacher5,6, David J. Nash7,8, and Ladislava Řezníčková1,2 1Institute of Geography, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic 5 2Global Change Research Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic 3Institute for Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources Management, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria 4Department of Historical Auxiliary Sciences, Institute of History, University of Szeged, Hungary 5Department of Geography, Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany 6Centre for International Development and Environmental Research, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Giessen, Germany 10 7Centre for Aquatic Environments, School of Environment and Technology, University of Brighton, Brighton, United Kingdom 8School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa Correspondence to: Rudolf Brázdil (
[email protected]) Abstract. The use of documentary evidence to investigate past climatic trends and events has become a recognised approach in recent decades. This contribution presents the state of the art in its application to droughts. The range of documentary evidence is 15 very wide, including: general annals, chronicles, and memoirs, diaries kept by missionaries, travellers and those specifically interested in the weather, the records kept by administrators tasked with keeping accounts and other financial and economic records, legal-administrative evidence, religious sources, letters, songs, newspapers and journals, pictographic evidence, chronograms, epigraphic evidence, early instrumental observations, society commentaries, compilations and books. These come from many parts of the world. This variety of documentary information is evaluated with respect to the reconstruction of 20 hydroclimatic conditions (precipitation, drought frequency and drought indices).