Drought Mitigation.
Okay droughts happen, its part of the natural climate cycles, in North American much of it is tied to the El Nino/La Nina activity on the severity of the drought. Droughts and wet cycles have been happening for eons.
We have been tearing up landscape of the US for since the late 1500's and biggest changes probably happened 1800-1940's with agriculture and logging actions. The native vegitation was adpated to survive wet and dry periods and for the most part kept the soil covered and reduced water losses.
Modern agriculture goes from ditch to ditch, exposing the bare soil at least 7-8 months of the year. Also wetlands have been drained, rivers striaghten, aquifers depleated faster then they can recharge, mass population centers in arid areas, salination of soil and natural water areas, etc.
Now to the drought mitigaton.
With modern ag, many small practices to hold the soil and moisture in the soil have not been adapted, especially in the last few years of high commodity prices where producers are tempted to tear up every bit of land to squeeze as much produce out of the ground as possible.
Some ground should not be tilled, it either too dry or highly erodible. Some areas of the country shouldn't even been farmer/grazed, its so dry that even the native vegitation has a hard time growing. Large communities shouldn't happened in extreme arid areas when the basic resources to sustain them are brought in from hundred of miles away, such as potable water.
There is going to have to be a culture switch in different practices to save our resources, such as expanding water ways, establishing wetlands to store subsurface water and aquifier recharging. Taking some land out of row crop production, switching from water depended grains such as corn to ones that thrive in dryer climates such wheat. I could go on and on.
Were not going to stop the droughts but to help ease the damage/ pain from the drought measures are going to be needed to protect the enviroment and ensure we have ample clean water and food production for generations to come.