Climate Exchange

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billion) by 2030 to safeguard and modernize infrastruc-

ture by sealing leaky pipes, expanding reservoirs and

recycling household wastewater.

In Canada, the Pasture Recovery Program was an

initiative to encourage producers not to put cattle on

damaged pasture early in the spring of 2010, and to

assist them in purchasing extra feed supplies. NADM

products were used in designating the producers eligi-

ble to receive the payments, which were based on the

number of cattle the producer had within the impacted

region and totalled Can$67.2 million in Alberta and

Can$16.9 million in Saskatchewan.

In the US, the USDM, which becomes the US portion

of the NADM each month, is used by many states as a

trigger in their drought plans, and by the USDA as a crite-

rion for allocating drought relief funds. The USDA’s Farm

Service Agency (FSA) and its predecessors administer

commodity, conservation and farm lending programmes

to about two million agricultural producers. The FSA

programmes are legislated through farm bills (passed by

the US Congress every five to six years), annual appropri-

ations and disaster emergency acts. In 2006, state block

grants totalling US$50 million were allocated through the

Livestock Assistance Grant Program, and in fiscal year

2010 the USDA provided US$1.9 billion in supplemental

agricultural disaster assistance outlays where the damage

was due to drought or other adverse weather.

Drought

relief funds allocated through the Livestock Forage

Program totalled US$165 million in 2008, US$99 million

in 2009, US$33 million in 2010 and US$255 million in

2011.

In the 2008 Farm Bill’s disaster declaration and

designation process, the USDM provides a quantifiable

standard for determining a qualified county: those that

experienced a USDM drought category of D2 (severe

drought) for a minimum period of two months would

qualify, while D3 (extreme drought) or worse automati-

cally qualified the county as a disaster area.

Operational production of the NADM

The NADM is not imposed on participants by an outside

agency; it is a bottom-up collaborative activity by the

participants. Experts within each participating country

independently determine that country’s drought depic-

tion and construct a narrative describing its drought

conditions. The NADM is produced monthly in an

ArcGIS environment by a lead author who integrates the

national drought depictions and narrative discussions

from the three countries into a continental map and

narrative. The lead author changes every month, rotat-

ing from among personnel at six of the NADM partner

agencies and organizations. The 2012 author schedule

is typical of an annual schedule, including:

• Canada: AAFC personnel lead authoring for two of

the 12 months

• Mexico: SMN personnel lead authoring for two months

• US: NDMC personnel lead authoring for two months,

USDA personnel lead authoring for one month, CPC

personnel lead authoring for two months, and NCDC

personnel lead authoring for three months.

southern US and northern Mexico reduced streamflow along the

Rio Grande/Bravo River system. The NADM provided a collaborative

drought monitoring tool which assessed the severity of drought in

the region, providing valuable information which could be used by

decision makers on both sides of the border to better manage water

resources held in US and Mexican reservoirs along the river system.

Academic studies have attempted to estimate the costs associ-

ated with drought. According to Anil Markandya, Director of the

Basque Centre for Climate Change, drought affects around 25 per

cent of gross domestic product in developed countries – and more

in developing countries.

The total cost of droughts over the past

30 years in Europe amounts to

€

100 billion (about US$132 billion

or US$4.4 billion per year on average).

In the US, droughts cause

direct losses that average between US$6 billion and US$8 billion per

year.

According to a Manitoba government study in 2002, the 2001

Prairie drought cost the Canadian economy over Can$5 billion in

agricultural losses.

Since the NADM is an operational activity with no specific line-

item budget, funding has not been available to engage an economist

to perform an NADM cost-benefit analysis. Furthermore, while

many commercial users have indicated that they use the NADM in

their business decisions, they are reluctant to release proprietary

financial information that could help NADM producers determine

the savings achieved by using the product. However, some estimate

of NADM-based cost savings can be obtained from data released by

Government agencies.

Government agencies and academic institutions such as univer-

sities and research institutes in Mexico, the US and Canada are

heavy users of the NADM. In Mexico, the NADM is an impor-

tant criterion for drought-related decisions made at the highest

levels of Government.

According to a Reuters news report,

the

Government has allotted MXN34 billion (US$2.65 billion) in emer-

gency aid to confront the 2011-2012 drought; and water authority

CONAGUA says it must invest over MXN300 billion (US$23.68

The North American Drought Monitor for the end of

December 2011

Source: NOAA