Recently, the team led by Associate Researcher Xue Jingyuan at IDMR has made significant progress in the field of agricultural drought risk assessment. The research results are presented in an article titled "Assessment of agricultural drought disaster risk in Southwest China using fuzzy logic-based geospatial techniques,” published in Agricultural Water Management —an international journal in the field of agricultural and forestry science/agricultural water resources management (a Top journal in the first zone of the Chinese Academy of Sciences).

The study addressed the limitations of previous research on spatial and temporal scales, constructed a comprehensive framework for assessing drought risk in agriculture, and also revealed the characteristics of drought risk in different regions of Southwest China. At the same time, the study team systematically evaluated the role of irrigated farmland proportions in mitigating risks and proposed scientific thresholds, providing important references for agricultural drought prevention and control, as well as policy-making.

The study was led by a Master’s student; Mingxia Wang as the first author, Associate Researcher Jingyuan Xue as the corresponding author, and its co-authors include Associate Professor Yusen Ye and Associate Researcher Lilai Xu from IDMR, Dr. Yanping Qu and Dr. Xingwang Wang from the China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, and Dr. Isaya Kisekka from the University of California, Davis, USA.

The article is accessible via a link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109785