The State of the NIDIS A Presentation to: The Third Integrated Global Water Cycle Observations IGWCO

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The State of the NIDISA Presentation to The
Third Integrated Global Water Cycle Observations
(IGWCO) Planting MeetingMarch 14, 2007Roger
Pulwarty (NOAA) and Mark Brusberg (USDA)NIDIS
Project Implementation Team
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National Integrated Drought Information
System (NIDIS)

• Goal To enable the Nation to move from a
  reactive to a more proactive approach to droughts.

www.westgov.org/wga/publicat/nidis.pdf
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As lead agency, NOAA .

• Established the NOAA NIDIS Coordination Office
• Established NIDIS Implementation Team
• Coordinated inter-agency program and sponsored
  activities
• Considered USGEO role -- Coordination of
  monitoring to leverage existing cross agency,
  state, local and private sector observations and
  information delivery

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NIDIS as a USGEONear Term Opportunity
NIDIS NTO Planned Functions
Emerging Opportunities
Physical Science Socioeconomic Research Needs
and Situation assessments
Educate
Risk Reduction Research
Observe
Monitor
Plan
Predict
Analyze
Inform
Make Decisions Take Action
NIDIS Operations Office
NIDIS Business Process Requirements
Federal, State, Local, Tribal, Regional
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Implementation Plan Considerations

• Who is doing what? (and how well is it working?)
• Established or emerging federal, state, and local
  innovations (e.g., Drought Monitor, South
  Carolina, etc.)
• What are the gaps in services (products needed /
  sectors not being served)?
• NIDIS Program What should the governance and
  management structure look like?
• Identify criteria for Pilot selection Choice,
  design and implementation
• What are the near- and long-term priorities?

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Past Meetings/Future Directions

• May 11 Washington DC
• June 1,2 Lincoln NE
• May 31-Jun 3 Santa Fe NM
• Sept 21-22 Longmont CO
• Nov 14-15 USDA Headquarters
• NIDIS Bill 06
• February Draft Plan
• March 07 Final Implementation Plan

2007 Activities

• NOAA Regional Integrated Climate and Water
  Services
• Portal prototype and awareness program
• Workshops for team development in pilot
  locations
• National Workshop on the status of drought
  early warning indicators and
• triggers

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Implementation Plan Outline

• The NIDIS Project Office Structure,
  implementation teams and governance
• National
• Engaging the preparedness communities
• Monitoring and forecasting
• Education and Outreach
• Integrated research for generating drought risk
  scenarios
• The Drought Portal
• Regional/State
• DEWS Pilots Goals, Design, Implementation,
  Evaluation

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NIDIS Governance and Management

• NOAA Roles and Responsibilities
• Steering Body Roles and Responsibilities (NOAA,
  USGS (DoI), Others Western States Water Council)
• Project Manager Roles and Responsibilities
• Design Team Roles and Responsibilities
• Sub-teams for pilot implementation and evaluation

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Types of drought and management units
Project Team DEWS Pilot Design Recommendations

• Large watershed, several WGA-relevant basins
  e.g. Colorado,
• Individual States 2-3 of Montana, South Dakota,
  Missouri, Oklahoma, down to county level
• Eastern Watershed Multi-state flash drought
  Chesapeake
• Underserved or as yet under-represented testing
  transferability Mississippi or other
• Other
• Support from other regions through Coping with
  Drought
• Small supporting grant within pilots

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Designing Early Warning (Sub)Systems
What do we need to learn from pilots?

• Monitoring and forecasting subsystem
• National, regional and local levels gaps and
  product tailoring, benefits of additional (soil
  moisture, etc.) sensors

• Risk assessment sub-system
• Enable resource and other management authorities
  to generate risk and impact scenarios (e.g.,
  triggers in particular settings for EWS)

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Designing Early Warning (Sub)Systems
What do we need to learn from pilots?

• Preparedness sub-system
• Outline and inform actions required to reduce the
  loss and damage expected from an impending hazard
  event

• Communication sub-system
• Delivery of timely information on impending
  events, potential risk scenarios and preparedness
  strategies

• Evaluation and feedback sub-system

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Implementing NIDIS Pilots
Engaging research, management and planning
communities Stakeholder defined measures of
drought and triggers for decision making
Prediction
Applications Research
Monitoring
Integrating Toolse.g. Drought Portal
Engaging the preparedness communities
ImpactMitigation
ImprovedAdaptation
ProactivePlanning
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Implementing NIDIS Pilots
Coordinating federal, state, and local
drought-related activities (e.g., within
watersheds and states)
Engaging research, management and planning
communities Stakeholder defined measures of
drought and triggers for decision making
Prediction
Applications Research
Monitoring
Integrating Toolse.g. Drought Portal
Identifying and diffusing innovative strategies
for drought risk assessment, communication and
preparedness
Engaging the preparedness communities
ImpactMitigation
ImprovedAdaptation
ProactivePlanning
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NIDIS Implementation Strategy (to date)
Evolving the Strategy into a Plan

• Education and Outreach
• U.S. Drought Portal Concept (USDP)
• Integrating physical and social science research
  for risk assessment
• Engaging the preparedness communities
• Coordinating existing data networks (gap
  identification (e.g., density, frequency) and
  forecasts (May 2005)

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Near Term Objectives

• Near-Term Product Goals Provide integrated
  products / maps of current conditions, outlooks,
  and impacts at higher resolution.
• Develop an Internet Drought Portal to
  facilitate deliver and access to information,
  products and services.
• Coordinate drought preparedness plans and
  prototype Drought Early Warning System.
• Increased engagement with the research
  community.

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NIDIS Research Priorities

• Selected research needs in NIDIS
• Developing methodologies to integrate data on
  climate, hydrology, water short-term vs. long
  term drought
• Identifying regional differences in drought
  impacts and related information needs and
  delivery systems Develop regionally specific
  drought monitoring and forecasts

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ChallengesReal-Time Data Availability

• Drought indicators based on available preliminary
  data differ greatly from final data in some areas.

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ChallengesData Over Diverse Time Scales
Droughts span an enormous range of
time scales, from short-term flash droughts
that can have major agricultural impacts to
multi-year or even decadal droughts (1930s,
1950s, etc.) Paleoclimate evidence suggests that
in the last 1000 years parts of the U.S. have
experienced mega-droughts that persisted for
decades.
Droughts

• Other climate modes

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Looking Ahead

• FY07-08 Enhance observations, data management
  and distribution, and drought predictions and
  impacts research. Assess national status of
  drought early warning.
• FY 09-13 Implement pilot studies on several
  scales (watershed, state, region, county) and
  across time scales (seasonal to decadal and
  longer). Enhance regional impacts research and
  improve resolution of predictions.

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Questions?