ABSTRACT
This chapter examines unpredictable climate hazard risk across Asia's extensive and diverse dryland regions. It presents human-hazard analysis that stresses desert conditions and commonalities across Asia. The disruptive nature of climate hazards place Asian drylands at the forefront of climate-human interaction. The power of climate hazards to disrupt human and environmental systems is exemplified by drought-induced famines in China that killed 3.5 million people in the 20th century. The range and influence of climate hazards is extensive; in drylands slow-onset disasters affect the largest numbers of people and result in the greatest mortality rates. All climate hazards affect dryland productivity and communities, limit ecosystem services and exacerbate human-induced processes. Asian drylands are comprised of a subtropical high pressure belt that extends from Arabia to South Asia and high latitude, cold deserts that stretch from the Aral Sea to Mongolia and China.
