Study title

This dataset contains the results of a recent survey of historical drought years for the Dutch cities of Deventer and Zutphen between 1500 and 1795. It is the first long-term historical survey of drought years for these cities during the early modern period, and is part of the project: Coping with drought. An environmental history of drinking water and climate adaptation (NWO 406.18.HW.015). The primary aim of this project and the dataset is to provide insights into the severity of droughts in the early modern eastern Netherlands based on their impact. The drought years are ranked for both cities according to the Historical Severity Drought Scale (HSDS), developed by Garnier (2014) with values from -1 (ninsufficient qualitative and quantitative information but the event is kept in the chronological reconstruction), 1 (absence of rainfall: rogations, evidences in texts), 2 (local low-water in rivers, first effects on vegetation), 3 (general low-water (difficulties for navigation) and water reserves), 4 (severe low-water mark: navigation impossible, lay-off of wheatmills, search for new springs, forest fires, death of cattle), 5 (exceptional drought: no possible supply, shortage, sanitary problems, very high prices of wheat, forest fires).