The changing climate is causing the probability of extreme events, like drought, to change, a phenomenon known as non-stationarity. Non-stationarity poses new challenges that include identifying the differences between permanent change (e.g., trends towards wetter or drier conditions) and temporary anomalies from normal conditions (e.g., drought). Changes in how we assess drought could impact disaster relief and adaptation programs and inform future policy. To address these challenges, NIDIS and USDA Climate Hubs released the report, Drought Assessment in a Changing Climate: Priority Actions and Research Needs. Additional support was provided by the University of Colorado Boulder ‘s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES).
The report captures the ideas and feedback of more than 100 subject matter experts from over 44 institutions across the drought research and practitioner communities. This report includes a state of the science overview on drought in a changing climate and identifies some of the most pressing and strategic areas of research and action to advance the knowledge and understanding of drought assessment.
For more information, contact Britt Parker.
Image credit: NIDIS
