The NIDIS Coping with Drought Initiative: Understanding Drought Awareness and Informing Drought Early Warning Systems

The Coping with Drought research initiative was designed to coordinate and support networks that connect science and drought risk management practices specific to particular regions and their individual circumstances. Research funding supports teams that create learning environments, test scenarios and response strategies, and support planning and preparation in partnership with decision makers accountable to communities affected by drought.

The research investment stimulates relationships and capacity in places and with networks of people and institutions already working to managing hazards in the context of economic and community development. A strong foundation of applied research supports observations, monitoring, modeling, analyses, integrated information products, and methodological development. Successful drought early warning information systems help practitioners and policy makers craft a collaborative framework able to connect decisions in the near and longer term and across scales of decision-making. Done well, early warning systems are an important component of regional resilience planning.

General research grants issued through the National Integrated Drought Information System's Coping with Drought Initiative have been administered through NOAA's Sectoral Applications Research Program (SARP) since 2007. This talk will highlight projects funded through this imitative, particularly in terms of our general awareness of drought as well as those that have contributed directly to informing drought early warning systems.