NDMC Helps Grow Global Drought Preparedness Network

The Xerochore workshop, “Drought and the Natural System,” brought together drought planners from across the European Union and North Africa in June 2009 in the Netherlands. According to its website, Xerochore is a Support Action aimed at assisting in the development of a European Drought Policy in accordance with the EU-Water Framework Directive. Read more online at http://www.feem-project.net/xerochore/index.php.

NDMC climatologist Mark Svoboda attended a drought monitoring and early warning conference in La Sevena, Chile, in May 2009. Conference organizers included the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, and CAZALAC, the Centro del Agua para Zonas Áridas y Semiáridas de América Latina y el Caribe.

The National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) is working with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and countries around the world to move toward a global drought preparedness network.

Mark Svoboda, NDMC climatologist and U.S. Drought Monitor author, traveled to Chile in May and to the Netherlands in June for continent-scale discussions on drought monitoring and early warning.

Also in June, Don Wilhite, NDMC founder and current director of the School of Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, chaired a meeting of the WMO’s Forum on the Social and Economic Benefits of Weather, Water, and Climate Services in Geneva, Switzerland.  During his time at WMO, the School and the NDMC agreed to host a United Nations Inter-regional Workshop on Indices and Early Warning Systems for Drought.  Other co-sponsors for the meeting are the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  The workshop will be held in Lincoln, December 8-11, 2009.

Don also explored opportunities for NDMC scientists to offer a training course on drought monitoring for the Mali Meteorological Services with support from WMO.  This training course will likely be in mid-September.

Back to DroughtScape Summer 2009