Climate Sense

34 / 287

[ ] 35
T he Impacts and Implications of Climate C hange and Variability
cal management indicators and triggers; and engage and enable
planning by those affected.
NIDIS is overseen by an interagency Executive Council, with
execution responsibility in the hands of its Program Implementation
Team, composed of representatives from over 40 federal and state
agencies, academic institutions, and tribal and private entities. At
the regional level, the implementation team convenes multi-agency
teams focusing on: communication and developing an awareness
of drought and drought impacts; integrating information from
monitoring and forecasting networks; interdisciplinary research to
develop socioeconomic impact assessments and tools to generate
impacts scenarios; engaging preparedness communities to ensure
the needed indicators and management triggers are developed and
usable; and the development of national and regionally-specific web-
based drought portals that act as clearinghouses for information at
different scales.
In addition to coordination, a key NIDIS activity is the conduct
of ongoing gap assessments for feedback to the Executive Council,
to improve interagency collaboration and guidance where needed.
It also focuses on the transfer and adaptation of successful innova-
tions identified in one region to others in need. NIDIS draws on the
personnel, experience, and networks of other relevant institutions
and alliances to integrate basic and applied research into an adaptive
decision support environment.
Drought risk management provides an important prototype for
testing knowledge management and use across the full spectrum
of climate timescales. Research has shown that effecting cross-
scale climate risk management is most readily accomplished when
leadership and the public are engaged, and an authoritative basis
for integrating monitoring, research and management
is established. NIDIS offers the US a prototype to
achieve these service requirements. Some of its tools
have already been extended across US borders. For
example, the US, Canada and Mexico jointly produce
a monthly drought monitoring product that provides
scientifically-based information about the status of
ongoing drought across North America.
Concluding thoughts
The US has yet to establish an NCS, although active
consideration of its responsibilities and structure is being
given by both executive and legislative branches. It is
easy to imagine, however, that if a service is to succeed
it must be grounded on a set of principles that include:
a commitment to a service-centric approach, in which
user requirements will be identified collaboratively
through ongoing dialogue with decision makers, the
research community, the service, and its partners; a
balance between present and future information needs
that recognizes both user requirements and the readiness
of science to address those requirements; encouraging
public-private partnerships, in which respective roles are
defined and respected and value-added climate products
by the private sector are welcomed; and ensuring robust
products are based on sound science, developed through
sustained collaborations with partners across the federal
government and in academia, effectively communicated
to a broad spectrum of users.
Historic flooding in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA, 2008
Image: Don Becker, USGS