Climate Exchange

[

] 145

Governing drought information systems

Dr Roger S. Pulwarty, Chief, Climate and Societal Interactions Division and Director,

National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS),

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),

United States National Integrated Drought Information System

he National Integrated Drought Information System

Act of 2006 (NIDIS Act) builds on longstanding efforts

among agencies and institutions that had historically

been focused on drought risk assessment and response. The

NIDIS Act prescribes an inter-agency approach, led by the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), to

“enable the nation to move from a reactive to a more proactive

approach to managing drought risks and impacts”.

NIDIS is authorized to provide an effective drought early warning

system and to coordinate federal research in support of the

system. The intention is to improve public awareness of drought

and its attendant impacts and improve the capacity of counties

and watershed organizations to reduce drought risks proactively.

At the national level, the multi-agency NIDIS Executive Council

oversees the NIDIS Program Office. The NIDIS Program coordinates

the multi-agency and multi-state NIDIS Program Implementation

Team (NPIT). The NPIT is currently composed of representatives

from federal, NOAA state and Native American tribal agencies, as well

as academic and private entities. The group is chaired by the director

of the NIDIS Program. An advisory Executive Council

also acts as the interagency recipient of feedback from

the Program Office on drought-related monitoring and

research priorities and gaps.

NIDIS supports or conducts impacts assessments,

forecast improvements, indicators and management

triggers and the development of watershed scale infor-

mation portals (web-based). In partnership with other

agencies, tribes and states, the NIDIS teams coordinate

and develop capacity to prototype and then implement

Regional Drought Early Warning Systems (RDEWS)

using the information portals and other sources of local

drought knowledge.

The role of Regional Drought Early Warning

Systems prototypes

The functions of the NIDIS RDEWS prototypes are to

derive and illustrate the benefits of:

• Improved knowledge management

• Better use of existing and new information products

• Coordination and capacity development for using

early warning systems.

The locations for RDEWS prototypes and imple-

mentations are based on an assessment of drought

sensitivity and criticality (including publicly identi-

fied information needs), drought type (snowpack or

rainfall driven, short-term, multi-year), and admin-

istrative unit (such as watershed, city or county).

The ‘prototype’ framing allows for existing barriers

to cross-agency collaboration to be addressed, inno-

vations and new information to be introduced and

tested, and the benefits of participation in design,

implementation and maintenance to be clarified. A

mature and evaluated pilot becomes the implemented

regional system and its lessons become more likely to

be successfully transferred within or to other as yet

underserved regions. NIDIS also conducts knowledge

assessments to:

• Determine where major gaps in data, forecasts,

communication and information delivery exist

• Identify innovations in drought risk assessment and

management at state and local levels

• Engage constituents in improving the effectiveness

of NIDIS.

isaster

isk

eduction

NIDIS Governance: Executive Council

NATIONAL

NIDIS Technical Working Groups

REGIONAL

Regional Drought

Early Warning Systems

WATERSHED, URBAN

Public

Awerness

and

Education

Engaging

Preparedness

Communities

Integrated

Monitoring

and

Forecasting

Interdisciplinary

Research

and

Applications

U.S.

Drought

Portal

NIDIS Implementation Team

NIDIS Program Office

NIDIS organization

Source: NIDIS