Climate Exchange

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and how drought is defined in their region. In the US, several NIDIS

pilot projects engage local feedback on user needs and requirements

in order to develop drought information and early warning systems

that are appropriate and effective for the local regions.

Goals, linkages and the future

Geographical coverage is a key goal. Currently, the NADM includes

Canada, Mexico and the 50 United States and Puerto Rico.

Discussions are in progress to include partners from countries in

the Caribbean and Central America, US territories in the Pacific

(Guam, American Samoa) and US-affiliated countries in the Pacific

for which NOAA provides weather- and climate-related services

(federated states of Micronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands,

Republic of Koror, Commonwealth of the Mariana Islands).

A further goal is to enhance the software. The national DMs in

the US, Canada and Mexico are prepared independently within each

country using similar ArcGIS software and the national shape files are

then merged into continental shape files by the lead author. NIDIS

web services are being developed to support a more streamlined and

consistent process for producing these continental shape files.

The Global Drought Monitor

The NIDIS portal architecture, which supports the USDM and NADM,

also supports drought information on a global scale. A Global Drought

Monitor Portal (GDMP) has been developed using Open Geospatial

Consortium (OGC) web mapping services to serve as the founda-

tion for the development of a Global Drought Monitor (GDM).

The

GDM was designed to incorporate existing regional/continental DMs

that provide their information in an Open Geospatial Consortium-

compliant format. As of early 2012, the GDM has incorporated

regional drought information for North America via the NADM;

Europe, via the European Drought Observatory (EDO); and Africa,

using the African Drought Monitor (ADM). Groups representing

Australia and South America have expressed interest and coordina-

tion with appropriate parties in Asia is also expected.

Due to the variety of climates across the world, the diverse nature

of drought and the sectors it impacts, and the varying capabilities of

participating nations, no single design will work for all parts of the

world. The construction and functioning of each continental DM

needs to be appropriate for the continent in question. The NADM,

EDO and ADM provide examples of three models uniquely adapted

to the requirements and resources of their respective regions. The

table, detailing characteristics for the creation of continental drought

monitors, summarizes the level of IT infrastructure, drought

expertise, international collaboration and data exchange, drought

assessment capability, and national climate observing

systems for these three models.

The collaborative NADM model works for North

America because:

• All three countries have compatible IT infrastructure,

create national drought depictions on an operational

basis, and produce their national drought depictions

in an agreed-upon GIS format

• Extensive data networks and near-real time daily

climate observations exist within each country

• Collaborative agreements are in place for international

data exchange and sharing of drought expertise for

monitoring, forecasting and research.

The NADM model may not work for other continents

where these conditions are not met, such as Africa. Here,

extensive data networks and near-real-time daily obser-

vations are available for some nations but not for others;

the IT infrastructure varies from country to country; and

national DM assessments generally are not made on a

routine basis – and thus are not available for integration

into a continental DM (CDM). Nations on such continents

may need to request expertise from outside for drought

monitoring and forecasting, coupled with in-house exper-

tise for impacts, research, planning and education.

On continents such as Europe, the political infrastruc-

ture exists for the creation of international agreements

that govern joint research, information sharing and

provision of services, and each country has extensive

data networks providing near-real-time daily obser-

vations, supplemented by satellite observations and

modelled data. Thus, international centres can be estab-

lished which assess, monitor and forecast droughts on a

continental scale for all participating nations, comple-

mented by regional, national and local expertise and

assessments where available.

Continental or regional DMs are needed since current

NIDIS IT resources are insufficient to integrate the

dozens of national DMs that are – or will be – available.

For consistent depiction of drought on a global scale,

the integration of CDMs requires:

• The establishment of certain standards for drought

depiction among CDMs (for example, using a drought

classification scale similar to the NADM)

• The creation of CDM shape files in a GIS environment

• The smoothing of CDM drought depictions along

continental boundaries.

The GDMP includes a suite of global drought indica-

tors identified by experts and adopted by the World

Meteorological Organization as the necessary measures

to examine drought from a meteorological standpoint;

these indicators provide a base to assist the global inte-

gration and interpretation of the CDMs.

The NADM illustrates collaborative drought monitor-

ing on a continental scale that integrates national DMs

into a synergistic continental whole, with continental

drought indicators as guidance. The GDM takes this

collaborative concept to the global scale.

The drought classification and ranking percentile

scheme used by the NADM

Source: NOAA

Category

Abnormally dry

Moderate drought

Severe drought

Extreme drought

Exceptional drought

Description

Ranking percentile