For instance, can I set water pumps to pause automatically if there is no water to pump?

Nope. It's all manual at the moment.

The issue with that idea is that especially for new players, with sub-optimal placement of stuff, they may frequently experience "sloshing", which would then cause the beaver to regularly abandon the workplace; if they are at capacity, that beaver might go somewhere else and never return to the water pump.

An experienced player knows to pay extra attention to water pumps during drought, so it shouldn't be much hassle.

I no longer pay attention to water pumps or food during draughts. At least after the early game when everything is set up properly. I set the Work priority to the highest for food and water. Most manufacuring buildings to high priority, and the District, Builders and Hauling Posts to the default priority. And last of all research gets a lower priority.

I found that for me the distribution of workers works really well this way. Much less micro-management. I am playing currently with a fixed 22 days of normal days and 4 to 8 days draught with Custom settings. So my gameplay is a bit easier than the Hardest settings.

Also the main District building, Builders and Hauling posts are set to maximum allowed beavers to act as buffers for the work force.

Originally posted by jamiechi:

I am playing currently with a fixed 22 days of normal days and 4 to 8 days draught with Custom settings. So my gameplay is a bit easier than the Hardest settings.

Just a correction -- that is actually easier than the NORMAL setting; Normal setting has 15-20 mild season and 5-9 droughts.

The hard setting is 3-5 days of wet season then 15-30 days of drought. You are DRAMATICALLY easier than Hard.