January 2008

News

NDMC Researchers Present at the American Meteorological Society Meeting

Researchers from the National Drought Mitigation Center will present many projects at the annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, January 21-24, in New Orleans. Presentations will include:

“Drought Scenario 2008--Potential Impacts on Ethanol Production: What Role Can NIDIS Play in this Scenario?” This paper looks at how the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) could benefit the ethanol industry in the future. Authors are NDMC researchers Mark Svoboda, Ya Ding, Brian Fuchs, and Michal J. Hayes. This is part of Poster Session 1 on Policy & Socio-Economic Research, Wednesday, January 23, 2:30-4.

“A Window on Drought Information, Impacts and Implications,” about the NIDIS portal. Mark Svoboda teamed up with Tim Owen and Roger Pulwarty from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for this poster, which will also be part of Session 1 on Policy & Socio-Economic Research.

Mark Svoboda will be part of a panel discussion, “Coping With Drought,” on Wednesday, January 23, 1:30-2:30, along with Pulwarty and Owen; Shaun McGrath, Western Governors Association; Hope Mizzell, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources; and Brad Rippey, U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Mike Hayes will be part of a panel discussion on “Fires, Droughts, and Climate Change,” along with Ken Crawford, Oklahoma Climatological Survey; W. Craig Fugate, Florida Division of Emergency Management; Timothy J. Brown, Desert Research Institute; and Steven W. Running, University of Montana. The panel will be Tuesday, January 22, 1:30-3, as part of a look back at climate impacts in 2007.

Tsegaye Tadesse will present “Identifying time-lag relationships between vegetation condition and climate to produce vegetation outlook maps and monitor drought,” co-authored with NDMC researchers Brian Wardlow and Jae Ryu, as part of the Hydrology section’s panel discussion on Drought Assessment and Prediction, Part II, on Tuesday, January 22, 3:30-5:30.

Don Wilhite, former director of the National Drought Mitigation Center, now director of the School of Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, will present “The Pathway to Resiliency” as part of a panel discussion on Monday, January 21, 4-5:30, on the Societal Dimensions of Hazards, in the Policy & Socio-Economic Research section.

NDMC and Partners Receive NASA Grants

The National Drought Mitigation Center learned in December that two research proposals submitted to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have been approved:

“Developing Seasonal Predictive Capability for Drought Mitigation Decision Support System” will help add a forecast component to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Researchers will incorporate climate modeling and satellite observations to see whether they can provide more useful information to decision-makers. They’ll be working with end-users of the Drought Monitor Decision Support System (DMDSS) to assess whether the additional forecast information improves decisions. The end-users are two agricultural producer organizations, The Irrigation Association and The Corn Growers Association, and two local agencies, the Central Illinois Irrigated Growers Association and the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources. The project is expected to take three years to complete. NDMC researchers will be partnering with others from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Illinois Water Survey at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. NDMC researchers on the project are Jae Ryu, Mark Svoboda, Cody Knutson, Meghan Sittler, and Don Wilhite.

“Integrating Enhanced GRACE Water Storage Data into the U.S. and North American Drought Monitors” will focus on incorporating NASA’s GRACE satellite data enhanced by hydrologic modeling into the U.S. and North American Drought Monitors. Ideally, the additional data will be incorporated into the “objective blends,” the strictly numeric drought map summaries produced weekly  for the U.S. Drought Monitor. Researchers will be able to measure the difference in objective blends with and without the additional data, and will incorporate stakeholder feedback in gauging the effectiveness of the changes. The project is expected to take three years to complete. NDMC researchers will be working with others from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climatic Data Center, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. NDMC researchers on the project are Mark Svoboda and Brian Wardlow.

U.S. Drought Monitor Shapefiles Archived

Shapefiles for the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM) back through 2001 are now archived on the USDM web site as “GIS Data” at http://drought.unl.edu/dm/dmshps_archive.htm. In addition to actual shapefiles, which was originally a proprietary file format developed by the Environmental Systems Research Institute, the archive provides KML files, the Google Earth format; GML files, using Geographic Markup Language, which works on a variety of GIS platforms; and OGC Web Mapping Services, which provide georeferenced map images to a variety of clients. If you have questions about USDM GIS Data, please contact Soren Scott, NDMC GIS Specialist, via email to sscott5@unl.edu, or by calling 402-472-6717.

News Graphic Animates Drought, Reservoir Levels

The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., animates the U.S. Drought Monitor for that state and links it to reservoir levels: http://www.newsobserver.com/1181/story/745683.html

It’s probably the best animated drought graphic we’ve seen!