New Tools Available through the National Integrated Drought Information System's U.S. Drought Portal

The U.S. Drought Portal is the public face of the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) and serves as a clearinghouse for drought products, forecasts, services, and information at the state and sub-regional, national, regional, and global levels. In operation since 2007, the U.S. Drought Portal is constantly improving the types of information available as well as how the information is provided. In 2015, the US Drought Portal underwent an update to address user requirements for services and to streamline navigation. Coincident with the roll-out of the redesigned Drought Portal, a suite of GIS-based tools and mapping services were established. These tools allow users to use NIDIS map services in their own map viewers, to add context to, or augment, their data. The GIS-based viewer tools also allow users to create custom map layers by combining existing products and services into a single product that meets a particular user need. Also provided is a scaling tool which allows the fine-scale drought information available via map services from NIDIS to be aggregated to common geographic scales, such as the county, state, or hydrologic unit level. Future plans will allow users to scale the information based upon spatial extents provided by the user. All changes and new products and tools are driven by user requirements, often derived from the Regional Drought Early Warning Systems, operating in various locations throughout the country, as well as through international agreements and partnerships.