Drought poses a serious threat to the resilience of communities and ecosystems in the United States. Over the past several years, many regions have experienced extreme drought conditions, fueled by prolonged periods of reduced precipitation and exceptionally warm temperatures. As global temperatures continue to rise, the frequency, severity, and duration of droughts are expected to increase across North America, impacting both humans and ecosystems. USGS drought science is helping communities and resource managers better understand how changing climate, and drought, may impact them and their surrounding environment.
Ecological Drought: Assessing Vulnerability and Developing Solutions for People and Nature
Together, the National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center, Nature Conservancy and Wildlife Conservation Society have launched a new Ecological Drought Expert Working Group through the Science for Nature and People partnership. The goal of the working group is to deliver a comprehensive assessment of the ecological impacts of drought and to inform efforts to reduce the risks facing nature and people. The group will also seek to understand ways in which communities can adapt to the long-term effects of drought by supporting healthy ecosystems. The group’s findings will be synthesized at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis and will help to inform local communities, businesses and conservation practitioners. The work will also help guide new research being conducted around the country.
Find out more about this collaboration on the SNAPP Ecological Drought Working Group web site.
Coping with Drought in the Russian River Watershed
The National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) has identified the Russian River as a California Pilot Study Area for drought preparedness because of the combination of flood risk and sustained drought conditions that represent a major challenge to water managers, agriculture, endangered species and tourism in the area. We are working with the lead water management agency in the region, Sonoma County Water Agency, the Russian River NIDIS Pilot Activity group and a team of scientific experts to provide advances in understanding drought that will meet stakeholder needs for drought preparedness and risk reduction.
Climate Change Adaptation in the Northern Great Plains Using Model-Based Scenario Planning
We are developing a process for creating regional climate summaries that can be used for local scenario planning and piloting an approach for enhancing scenario planning through simulation modeling. We will draw on global climate model projections to develop several climate summaries for the northern Great Plains region. The summaries will then be used for local-scale climate adaptation planning efforts for Badlands National Park (South Dakota) and Knife River Indian Villages National Historical Site (North Dakota) and surrounding federal and tribal lands. A final step will be to develop a simulation model for the South Dakota site to help managers address the “what if” questions regarding how management actions might affect local resources under the different scenarios.
Building our Foundational Understanding: Helping Land Managers Adapt to Climate Change
The Missouri River Basin is an important agricultural production area home to approximately 12 million people, including 28 Native American tribes. We are working to understand how federal and tribal natural resource managers experience and deal with drought in this landscape. We will then document how managers perceive drought impacts, how their decisions are affected by these perceptions, and their capacity to respond to and prepare for drought. We will use this information to determine the types of climate data and tools that will help managers operating under drought conditions.
In the Northeastern U.S., climate change is expected to increase the frequency of extreme precipitation events. However, less rain is predicted to fall in between these extreme events and air temperatures are also expected to rise. This combination of conditions will likely expose the Northeast to both floods and droughts that will have significant ecological, social, and economic implications for the region. We are assessing a ‘slow the flow’ watershed management approach which focuses on increasing water storage in natural areas via the reconnection of floodplains to rivers, conversion of impervious surfaces to forests, beaver management to encourage beaver dams, and restoring complexity and sinuosity in stream channels. This approach can decrease the vulnerability of water resources and infrastructure (such as roads and residences) to extreme flood and drought events while providing additional benefits for ecosystems and fish and wildlife habitat.
Below are partners associated with this project.
Drought poses a serious threat to the resilience of communities and ecosystems in the United States. Over the past several years, many regions have experienced extreme drought conditions, fueled by prolonged periods of reduced precipitation and exceptionally warm temperatures. As global temperatures continue to rise, the frequency, severity, and duration of droughts are expected to increase across North America, impacting both humans and ecosystems. USGS drought science is helping communities and resource managers better understand how changing climate, and drought, may impact them and their surrounding environment.
Ecological Drought: Assessing Vulnerability and Developing Solutions for People and Nature
Together, the National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center, Nature Conservancy and Wildlife Conservation Society have launched a new Ecological Drought Expert Working Group through the Science for Nature and People partnership. The goal of the working group is to deliver a comprehensive assessment of the ecological impacts of drought and to inform efforts to reduce the risks facing nature and people. The group will also seek to understand ways in which communities can adapt to the long-term effects of drought by supporting healthy ecosystems. The group’s findings will be synthesized at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis and will help to inform local communities, businesses and conservation practitioners. The work will also help guide new research being conducted around the country.
Find out more about this collaboration on the SNAPP Ecological Drought Working Group web site.
Coping with Drought in the Russian River Watershed
The National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) has identified the Russian River as a California Pilot Study Area for drought preparedness because of the combination of flood risk and sustained drought conditions that represent a major challenge to water managers, agriculture, endangered species and tourism in the area. We are working with the lead water management agency in the region, Sonoma County Water Agency, the Russian River NIDIS Pilot Activity group and a team of scientific experts to provide advances in understanding drought that will meet stakeholder needs for drought preparedness and risk reduction.
Climate Change Adaptation in the Northern Great Plains Using Model-Based Scenario Planning
We are developing a process for creating regional climate summaries that can be used for local scenario planning and piloting an approach for enhancing scenario planning through simulation modeling. We will draw on global climate model projections to develop several climate summaries for the northern Great Plains region. The summaries will then be used for local-scale climate adaptation planning efforts for Badlands National Park (South Dakota) and Knife River Indian Villages National Historical Site (North Dakota) and surrounding federal and tribal lands. A final step will be to develop a simulation model for the South Dakota site to help managers address the “what if” questions regarding how management actions might affect local resources under the different scenarios.
Building our Foundational Understanding: Helping Land Managers Adapt to Climate Change
The Missouri River Basin is an important agricultural production area home to approximately 12 million people, including 28 Native American tribes. We are working to understand how federal and tribal natural resource managers experience and deal with drought in this landscape. We will then document how managers perceive drought impacts, how their decisions are affected by these perceptions, and their capacity to respond to and prepare for drought. We will use this information to determine the types of climate data and tools that will help managers operating under drought conditions.
In the Northeastern U.S., climate change is expected to increase the frequency of extreme precipitation events. However, less rain is predicted to fall in between these extreme events and air temperatures are also expected to rise. This combination of conditions will likely expose the Northeast to both floods and droughts that will have significant ecological, social, and economic implications for the region. We are assessing a ‘slow the flow’ watershed management approach which focuses on increasing water storage in natural areas via the reconnection of floodplains to rivers, conversion of impervious surfaces to forests, beaver management to encourage beaver dams, and restoring complexity and sinuosity in stream channels. This approach can decrease the vulnerability of water resources and infrastructure (such as roads and residences) to extreme flood and drought events while providing additional benefits for ecosystems and fish and wildlife habitat.
Below are partners associated with this project.