Enhancing resilience and adaptation to drought in crop production, both at the farm and regional levels, is a critical challenge that must be addressed. This can be achieved through monitoring and early warning systems, as well as vulnerability and impact assessments. While numerous initiatives, projects, and tools have been developed to support these approaches, the primary focus has been on monitoring and early warning, resulting in several tools dedicated to this purpose. In contrast, vulnerability and impact assessment, despite its importance for drought preparedness, has received less attention. These assessments are crucial as they provide relevant information for making tactical and strategic decisions that can enhance the resilience and adaptation of our agroecosystems to droughts. Existing tools for vulnerability and impact assessment often rely on remote sensing products, statistical indices, and simple models. However, the potential of crop models for these assessments remains largely unexplored. In this context, the AquaCrop model, developed by the FAO, stands out as an excellent tool for evaluating drought impacts on crop production and irrigation water requirements, as it was specifically designed for this purpose. Its use overcomes the limitations of other approaches that often fail to provide a quantitative estimate of losses, focusing solely on the proportion of area affected by drought. Additionally, while some tools based on crop modelling report attainable yields, they are not specifically linked to drought occurrence. The d-iap fills this gap by offering precise assessments of drought-related impacts.

​

The main advantages of d-iap compared to other tools stem from the use of the AquaCrop model, which includes: