Using GIS to show Drought Impacts on North American Agricultural Commodities

Droughts can adversely affect agriculture and food security in North America by stressing the vegetation and water supply associated with crop and livestock production. Maps highlighting the impacts of drought on agricultural commodities are North American are currently limited to individual countries and are not readily available for a continent-wide view. These maps are a joint effort of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the National Drought Mitigation Center and are generated weekly by overlaying the most recent U.S. Drought Monitor with major agricultural commodity producing areas. These major commodity areas are based on USDA’s most current Agriculture Census and Survey data. This project extends the maps to Canada and Mexico to highlight the impacts of drought on major crop and livestock producing areas across all of North America. Similar to the U.S. Agriculture in Drought maps, the North American Agriculture in Drought maps overlay the North American Drought Monitor, which is produced monthly, on major agricultural commodity producing areas based on census and survey data from Canada, United States, and Mexico. Future work includes creating maps to highlight the major common agricultural commodities North America as well as crop production maps that show the estimated crop stage for each area. The overall goal is to create a tool that could help decision-makers predict the yield/production of a given agricultural commodity depending on the current drought conditions in North America.