Slow Burn: Developing a Framework for Exercising Drought

Among the wide variety of hazards that are frequently exercised by local, state, or federal jurisdictions, drought has historically proven an infrequent topic. This is largely due to the slow evolving nature of drought, as well as difficulty in attributing impacts directly to drought as opposed to another more acute hazard. Similarly, the time scale of many exercises, especially tabletop exercises, make drought a difficult choice to justify or prioritize for inclusion in a local exercise program. It is these very factors, however, that make developing a framework for drought critical for emergency managers, critical infrastructure operators, and the agriculture sector. Therefore an effort was made to develop a flexible, scalable drought exercise that jurisdictions of various sizes, geographic locations, and vulnerability portfolios could utilize to meet this need. The exercise employs drought as an overarching instigating hazard with more traditional, acute hazards addressed in each of the modules. Accompanying question sets encourage participants to think both in terms of short-term response and long-term strategic adaptations. This exercise was piloted with primary participation of the New Mexico and Arizona Departments of Agriculture in spring 2023. This talk will highlight the development considerations of exercise designers, lessons learned from the pilot facilitation of the exercise, and long-term plans for making these materials available to jurisdictions across the United States.