Seventeen Years of Strengthening Drought Information and Services - a Whole-of-Government Integrated Approach

Drought is one of the most complicated climate hazards to understand and plan for due to the complex interaction between atmosphere, water, and humans; the lack of a discrete hazard beginning and end date; the interactions with other hazards such as wildfires, heat, and floods; and the underlying changing climate. In 2006, the U.S. Congress established the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) with an interagency mandate to coordinate and integrate drought research, building upon existing federal, tribal, state, and local partnerships in support of creating a national drought early warning information system. A key component of the NIDIS mission is to provide accurate information on drought conditions and associated risks to facilitate proactive decision-making. This delivery of services is always executed with a whole-of-government lens and tailored so that it is actionable for specific audiences and needs. This presentation will highlight the role of Integrated Information Systems, and NIDIS in particular, as a unique whole-of-government approach to climate information and services in support of resilience. Examples include the redesign of the U.S. Drought Portal (drought.gov) to provide more interactive information at the local level, regional drought status updates that are created collectively across federal and state partners to provide the best available information on current conditions and future conditions to support drought response, and post-drought assessments to improve the identification of locally-specific impacts, responses, and areas for improved readiness to future droughts.