Intergenerational inequity from hydrological drought in a warming world

As warmer temperatures enhance atmospheric moisture, hydrological droughts tend to intensify in most regions of the globe. Consequently, younger generations are expected to face a more severe risk of hydrological drought during their lifetimes, emphasizing the critical issue of intergenerational inequity due to climate change. To quantify exposure to hydrological drought across generations, we constructed a cascade model chain for drought simulation using hybrid terrestrial models, based on 5 GCM outputs under SSP5-85, five hydrological models and a deep learning model. We then projected future univariate and bivariate hydrological drought evolution in 4091 river basins, and quantified lifetime exposure to drought for the age groups born in 2020 and 1960. Drought severity and duration are projected to increase substantially in the Eastern America, Southern Brazil and Western Europe, over 79 % of basins. Extreme droughts far beyond historical records are expected to become more frequent and impact Western Europe in particular. Of note, the exposure of the different age groups to hydrological drought shows a notable disequilibrium. Exposure of people born in 2020 to hydrological drought hazards is projected to increase by 12 % over the late 21st century compared to those born in 1960, indicating that the acceleration of climate change is expected to increase the lifetime risk of future generations. The exposure factor of the newborns is 1.4 times higher than that of 80 years of age under warming condition. Our findings underscore that future drought conditions under extreme warming pose a significant threat to the living conditions of younger generations.