water Article Unsustainability Syndrome—From Meteorological to Agricultural Drought in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions Ali Torabi Haghighi 1,* , Nizar Abou Zaki 1 , Pekka M. Rossi 1, Roohollah Noori 2 , Ali Akbar Hekmatzadeh 3, Hossein Saremi 4 and Bjørn Kløve 1 1 Water, Energy and Environmental Engineering Research Unit, University of Oulu, 90570 Oulu, Finland; Nizar.AbouZaki@oulu.fi (N.A.Z.); pekka.rossi@oulu.fi (P.M.R.); bjorn.klove@oulu.fi (B.K.) 2 School of Environment, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, 141556135 Tehran, Iran;
[email protected] 3 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Shiraz University of Technology, 71555-313 Shiraz, Iran;
[email protected] 4 Department of Geography, Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, 8514143131 Najafabad, Iran;
[email protected] * Correspondence: ali.torabihaghighi@oulu.fi Received: 18 January 2020; Accepted: 12 March 2020; Published: 16 March 2020 Abstract: Water is the most important resource for sustainable agriculture in arid and semi-arid regions, where agriculture is the mainstay for rural societies. By relating the water usage to renewable water resources, we define three stages from sustainable to unsustainable water resources: (1) sustainable, where water use is matched by renewable water capacity, ensuring sustainable water resources; (2) transitional, where water use occasionally exceeds renewable water capacity; and (3) unsustainable, with lack of water resources for agriculture, society, and the environment. Using available drought indicators (standardized precipitation index (SPI) and streamflow drought index (SDI)) and two new indices for agricultural drought (overall agricultural drought index (OADI) and agricultural drought index (ADI)), we evaluated these stages using the example of Fars province in southern Iran in the period 1977–2016.