Hi Bob and welcome.
I read it all.
In Brisbane here we are in a pretty bad shape from drought.
Our dams for 2million people are down to 20%, they were down to 16% but recent rain had a small top up.
SEQWater - Dam Operations & Maintenance
Problem here is poor engineering which didn't consider clay soils and poor attitudes to trees and the species selection and location has led to lots of houses cracking.
The traditional rainfall was around 1200mm a year. I suppose the average in drought is 500mm. However it has been a couple of years of below average rain. That coupled with the fact that our primary dams for water are located to the west which is a lower rainfall area anyway.
Why do they build dams in low rainfall areas I hear you ask?
Because this is the
smart state .... just having a dig.
I came from Adelaide in South Australia, average rainfall 550mm, in drought maybe 250mm, and they're sitting on 79% capacity.
On this map you just click the city and get the dam levels.
H2Overview - Dam level Map
So, it's about managing resources, collecting water where it rains, and being able to water. Due to water restrictions trees/gardens only allowed bucket watering certain times.
So you can imagine, drought, landscape neglect, houses cracking, engineers and geotechs loving it and under pinners booming. Pretty hard to stand up against an engineers report especially when they pull out some standard we dont have!
Now during all of this not many trees died really, sure a few did but not like say the beetle kills in USA or Dutch Elm Disease etc.
Anyway, the things I noticed here was no paths around houses and vegetation right up to the walls. Also a termite problem. Houses built up to late 70's didn't have to get the roof water into a drain, most just dump it straight out the down pipe onto the lawn/garden etc.
No-one really gave much thought to drought, heck it rains all year around and mainly in summer, so soil is always damp and dams always trickle filled.
The immediate solution for most people was installing rainwater tanks for roof run off. I did this to, I collect 3500 litres from 20mm of rain, I use this to top up the pool. State govt gives you $1000 as incentive to put in a tank greater than 3000 litres. Water is the answer, as you say rehydration.
Other thing is mulching, reducing that sun exposure.