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drought information, and will provide a framework for interacting
with and educating those affected by drought using a web portal
environment. While this first-of-a-kind drought information system
will provide the US with advanced capabilities for dealing with future
droughts, more importantly, it will provide the basis for similar activ-
ities on a continental, hemispheric or global scale.
Toward a global drought early warning system
With water availability emerging as a critical concern in the 21st
century, international cooperation in water management and drought
monitoring and mitigation takes on growing urgency. The NADM
and the US National Integrated Drought Information System provide
a guidebook for the development of a global drought early warning
system. A coordinated early warning system can synergistically
develop products, data, and information that span all dimensions
from local to national and international. It can provide decision
makers with information which is essential for assessing potential
impacts and developing planning and response mechanisms to
protect societies.
Many nations have important components of a drought early
warning system, but no one nation has all of the tools, products, and
data to deliver the best system. Through international collaboration
the development of knowledge, tools and products needed for an
effective early warning system can be greatly accelerated. For
example the US and Canada are working together to integrate
weather and soil moisture monitoring. While collaboration is in its
early stages, improved data and modelling of drought indices and
other weather extremes has already been realized.
A global drought early warning system can weave together data
from current and future observing systems to provide: information
The US Drought Portal, a key part of the US National Integrated Drought Information System, provides reliable information on drought conditions at
county, regional, and national scales, as well as serving as the primary point of entry for drought-related queries to a variety of user groups
for drought response, planning, mitigation and recov-
ery; an interactive set of analysis tools; and critical
drought information to countries with inadequate moni-
toring resources. In the future the system can provide
for data and information sharing, communication, and
capacity building to take on the growing worldwide
threat of drought. A network of drought experts across
the world will work to issue real-time international
drought severity assessments as frequently as possible,
with increased frequency during a crisis.
A global drought early warning system can also
provide benefits including enhanced information for
response to disasters such as forest and wildland fires,
and where possible, management of the effects of water
deficits on water quality and terrestrial and ocean
ecology. It will also support improvements in information
for water management decisions for human and indus-
trial consumption, agricultural use and energy
production.
Through the many observing networks of GEO
nations, the world’s capacity to monitor drought is
greater now than at any time in the past. Building upon
this foundation of global observations, capacities to
monitor, forecast, plan, and respond to drought can be
greatly enhanced with the establishment of new part-
nerships and the development of new avenues for
sharing data and other resources. By acting now the
international community will be helping to guarantee
nations are prepared to meet the growing threat of
drought in the 21st century.
Source: NOAA; NDMC
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