The Italian region is characterized by very varied conditions of water resource availability and demand. Supposing that the drought occurrence is jast dependent on the ratio of the availability to the demand, the result is that drought problems vary considerably from zone to zone. As a conseguence, the research is developped on a regional scale range. It is however possible to affirm that serious problems occur only in restricted areas. Therefore, in the largest part of Italy, drought effect could be mitigated realizing works for water conveyance and storage and using water resources in a more effective manner. The antecedent problems can be better explained with reference to different aspects of the drougth phenomenon for which, a well known univocal objective definition, which is valid in different fields of use and recognized by everybody does not exist at present. The Italian problems are, therefore, illustrated according to different point of view: meteorological, hydrological and agricultural drought. The state of art and the research prespectives are also emphasized.