Clim. Past, 14, 1915–1960, 2018 https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-1915-2018 © Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Documentary data and the study of past droughts: a global state of the art Rudolf Brázdil1,2, Andrea Kiss3,4, Jürg Luterbacher5,6, David J. Nash7,8, and Ladislava Rezníˇ ckovᡠ1,2 1Institute of Geography, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic 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, Szeged, Hungary 5Department of Geography, Climatology, Climate Dynamics and Climate Change, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Giessen, Germany 6Centre for International Development and Environmental Research, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Giessen, Germany 7Centre for Aquatic Environments, School of Environment and Technology, University of Brighton, Brighton, UK 8School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa Correspondence: Rudolf Brázdil (
[email protected]) Received: 30 August 2018 – Discussion started: 4 September 2018 Revised: 6 November 2018 – Accepted: 22 November 2018 – Published: 11 December 2018 Abstract. The use of documentary evidence to investigate cussed. Finally, conclusions are drawn, and challenges for the past climatic trends and events has become a