Planning for Drought

State Drought Plans and Related Documents

Prospective drought planners may find it useful to examine existing drought plans for information and direction. Many of these drought plans are in .pdf format, which requires Adobe Acrobat Reader. You can download a free copy of this software from Adobe’s site.

Alabama
Drought Management Plan (draft final, April 2004)
(from Office of Water Resources)

Arizona
Drought Preparedness Plan (2006)
(from Statewide Drought Program )
Drought Planning and Mitigation
(a research project of CLIMAS, in coordination with the Arizona Governor’s Drought Task Force)

California
California Water Plan
Preparing for California’s Next Drought
Critical Water Shortage Contingency Plan
(from Drought Preparedness Home Page, Department of Water Resources and California Department of Water Resources)

Colorado
The Colorado Drought Mitigation and Response Plan (updated 2002)
(from Colorado Division of Emergency Management)

Connecticut
Drought Preparedness and Response Plan August, 2003
(from State of Connecticut Drought Response)

Georgia
Georgia Drought Management Plan March 2003

Hawaii
Drought Plan February 2005
(from Commission on Water Resource Management)

Idaho
Idaho Drought Plan, May 2001
(from Idaho Department of Water Resources)

Illinois
Illinois Drought Contingency Plan, June 1983 (document requires Acrobat Reader 6.0)
(from Illinois Division of Water Resources)

Indiana
Indiana Water Shortage Plan, May 2000
(from Indiana Division of Water)

Kansas
Operations Plan (updated annually)
(from Kansas Water Office)

Maryland
Drought Monitoring and Response Plan, November 2000
(from Maryland Statewide Water Conservation Committee)

Massachusetts
Drought Management Plan (working draft), December 2001
(from Water Resources Commission)

Minnesota
Drought Response Plan
(from Minnesota Department of Natural Resources)

Missouri
Missouri Drought Plan
(from Missouri Department of Natural Resources)

Montana
The Montana Drought Response Plan
(from Natural Resource Information System)

Nebraska
Drought Mitigation and Response Plan
(from Nebraska Climate Assessment and Response Committee)

Nevada
Drought Plan, 1991
(from Nevada Division of Water Resources)

New Hampshire
Drought Management Plan, 1990
(from New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, Dam Bureau)

New Jersey
Drought Emergency Plan, 1991
(from New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and the Office of Emergency Management)

New Mexico
Drought Plan, updated November, 2005
(from Governor’s Drought Task Force)

North Carolina
Emergency Operations Procedures for Drought Emergencies, completed in 1994
(from North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services)

Ohio
Ohio Drought Response Plan, 1994
(from Emergency Management Agency)

Oklahoma
Oklahoma Drought Management Plan, 1997
(from Oklahoma Emergency Management & Oklahoma Water Resources Board)
Weathering Drought: One State's Experience, 2008

Oregon
Drought Annex to State Emergency Operations Plan, revised 1991

Rhode Island
Drought Management Plan March, 2002
(from Rhode Island Statewide Planning Program)

South Carolina
South Carolina Drought Information Center website
(from South Carolina Office of Climatology)

Texas
State Drought Preparedness Plan, January 2001
(from Drought Preparedness Council)

Utah
Utah Drought Response Plan, 1993
(from Division of Water Resources)

Virginia
Virginia Drought Assessment and Response Plan, 2003
(from Department of Environmental Quality)

Washington
Washington Drought Regulations for Emergency Drought Relief, 1991
Drought Contingency Plan, 1992
(from Department of Ecology)

West Virginia
Emergency Operations Plan, Annex U, 2003
(from West Virginia Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management)

Wyoming
Wyoming Drought Plan, revised January 2003
(from the Wyoming Drought Task Force)

The NDMC has hard copies of plans from the following states:
Delaware–1982; Florida–1988 (water management districts); Kentucky–1988; Maine–1993; Michigan–1988; North Dakota–1988; Pennsylvania–1985 (Delaware River Basin); Tennessee–1987 (interim).
Contact Ann Fiedler if you would like a copy sent to you:

If You Have Recently Completed a Drought Plan—
please make every effort to make this valuable public document available on the web, and notify us at the NDMC so we can link to it. If you are unable to publish your drought plan on the web, please consider placing it on our website. Contact us for further information.

Other Useful Information
The NDMC also maintains a “drought library” of interesting reports, studies, and publications that we’ve accumulated over the years. These are sorted by state or organization of origin and by topic.