The Development of the Global Drought Monitor Portal and Summary of the April 2010 Global Drought Assessment Workshop

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The Development of the Global Drought Monitor
Portal and Summary of the April 2010 Global
Drought Assessment Workshop

• Richard R. Heim Jr., Michael J. Brewer
• NOAA/NESDIS/National Climatic Data Center
• Asheville, North Carolina, USA
• Will Pozzi
• Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Architectural
  Implementation Pilot (AIP) Drought Working Group
  Lead
• NASA Global Drought Monitoring Workshop
• Silver Spring, MD 11-12 April 2011

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Outline

• Background
• North American Drought Monitor (NADM)
• Need for a Global Drought Early Warning System
  (GDEWS)
• Summary of the April 2010 Asheville, NC, USA
  Global Drought Assessment Workshop
• NIDIS U.S. National Integrated Drought
  Information System
• Global Drought Monitor Web Portal (GDMP)
• Design and functionality -- GDMP as a conceptual
  floor or foundation for a GDEWS building
• Global drought indicators
• Integration of continental/regional Drought
  Monitors with capability to drill down to
  sub-regional, national, and local drought
  products

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Background North American Drought Monitor

• Agreement in principle between U.S., Canada,
  Mexico to establish climate extremes monitoring
  partnership, beginning with continental drought
  monitor
• Lead author coordinates prepares monthly
  continental map narrative

• The national depictions (US, CN, MX) are prepared
  independently by experts within each country
• NOAA, USDA, NDMC, AAFC, MSC, SMN

http//www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/monitoring/dro
ught/nadm/index.html

• Drought indices covering entire continent are
  needed Continental Drought Indicators
• Same indices, same analysis period, same
  methodologies
• SPI, Palmer Drought Indices, Percent of Long-term
  Average Precip
• Standardizing period is 1951-2001
• This consistency needed for depiction across
  international boundaries

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NADM Continental Drought Indicators

• Other indicators from other sources are also used

• NOAA/NESDIS Satellite Vegetation Health Index

• NOAA/CPC Leaky Bucket Soil Moisture Percentiles

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National Integrated Drought Information System
(NIDIS) Goals Objectives

• The NIDIS Act Public Law (109-430, December 2006)
  
• better informed and more timely drought-related
  decisions leading to reduced impacts and costs

Goal Enable the Nation to move from a reactive
to a more proactive approach to managing drought
risks and impacts (PL109-430)
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The NIDIS U.S. Drought Portal (www.drought.gov)

• Service-oriented architecture
• GIS interface for spatial overlays
• Data metadata services
• OGC-Compliant Web mapping services

1.
2.
3.
Key Clearinghouse Functions Credible,
Accessible, Timely Information Where are drought
conditions now? Does this event look like other
events? How is the drought affecting me? Will the
drought continue? Where can I go for help?
Portlets (DIR shown). Another example NWS
River Forecast Center Ohio River Water
Resources Outlook- Ecosystem recovery
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NADM Web Services

• NADM web site transitioning to interactive web
  site with OGC web services (within NIDIS Drought
  Portal environment)
• NADM indicators overlay and analysis with NADM
  map boundaries using various visualization tools

http//www.drought.gov/portal/server.pt/community/
nadm/303
NADM shapefiles
Location of Indicator Stations
Station Indicator Data

• NADM indicator station, divisional, and gridded
  (from LBPD) data in relational data base for
  efficient access analysis interoperability
  between various projects applications

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NADM Web Services
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• The growing problem of drought and its impact on
  long-term sustainability of Earths water
  resources has been recognized for many years. At
  a 2007 GEO Ministerial Summit, the event
  concluded with a U.S. proposal that technical
  representatives from participating countries
  build upon existing programs to work toward
  establishing a Global Drought Early Warning
  System (GDEWS) within the coming decade to
  provide
• A system of systems for data information
  sharing, communication, capacity building to
  take on the growing worldwide threat of drought
• Regular drought warning assessments issued as
  frequently as possible with increased frequency
  during a crisis

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• Drought monitoring, assessment, response,
  mitigation, adaptation, and early warning systems
  have been created in a number of countries around
  the world, and some regional and continental
  efforts have been successful
• but a GDEWS remains elusive.
• Faces hurdles that include technical, data,
  observation network, communications,
  administrative, and political issues across
  international borders.
• How to solve these problems?
• Build a foundation first an international
  Clearinghouse for drought information upon which
  the GDEWS could be constructed.

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Global Drought Assessment Workshop 21-22 April
2010, Asheville, NC, USA

• Gathering of international drought experts from
  across the world
• Addressed two subjects
• Develop Recommendations to the WMO of specific
  characteristics of the Standardized Precipitation
  Index (SPI) (e.g., standardizing base period,
  time scales, probability distribution functions)
  that should be adopted by the National
  Meteorological and Hydrological Services around
  the world, as well as where this information
  should be integrated and hosted
• Develop Recommendations for the creation of a
  Clearinghouse for international drought
  information and services

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Global Drought Assessment Workshop SPI
Recommendations

• Two options
• Compare SPI across space (e.g., within and
  between countries)
• Best description of drought at a given location
• Probability Distribution Function (pdf)
• Across spaceIncomplete gamma distribution
• Best descriptionThe pdf that best describes the
  stations precipitation data
• Standardizing Period
• Across spaceAt least 30 years, preferably 50
  years common period (i.e., 1961-2010, or
  1981-2010 if data not available from all of
  1961-2010)
• Best descriptionEntire period of record for
  station
• Time Scales
• 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, 6 months for
  meteorological drought
• Computed by each Member country
• Appropriate time scale depends on season,
  location, climatology

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Global Drought Assessment Workshop Clearinghouse
for International Drought Information and
Services Recommendations

• Breakout groups discussed
• What pieces should be part of an international
  Clearinghouse
• How should the Clearinghouse be housed,
  portrayed, and distributed
• One suggestion was to use the NIDIS Drought
  Portal.
• With a web-services-based Clearinghouse
  foundation (Global Drought Monitoring web
  portal), a GDEWS could be constructed atop it by
  integrating continental and regional Drought
  Monitors.

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A GDEWS Conceptual Framework An Integration of
Continental / Regional Drought Monitors
GDMP Global Drought Monitor Portal

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Continental / Regional Drought Monitors
One Conceptual Framework Level 1 (NADM Model) Level 2 Level 3
Drought Experts In-house expertise for monitoring, forecasting, impacts, research, planning, education Limited in-house expertise Rely on external expertise
National Climate Observing Network Extensive data networks, near-real time daily observations Limited networks (spatial density and/or timeliness) Rely on national CLIMAT/ WWW reports and external observations (e.g., satellite obs global models)
National Drought Assessments National Drought Monitor already routinely produced timely (monthly or more frequently) National assessments produced to support regional/continental monitoring Rely on external expertise to produce national assessments
International Data Exchange Station data exchanged for creation of regional or continental standardized indicators Limited data exchanged internationally Only CLIMAT or WWW data exchanged internationally
International Collaboration National experts collaborate to create regional or continental Drought Monitor Some national input to regional or continental Drought Monitor Rely on external experts to produce national assessment for regional/ continental Monitor
IT Infrastructure ArcGIS, web, email Limited ArcGIS, web, and/or email access No IT infrastructure, rely on alternatives
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Global Drought Monitor Portal (GDMP) http//www.dr
ought.gov/portal/server.pt/community/global_drough
t

• Provide a web-services-based environment for
• Integration of Regional or Continental Drought
  Monitor(s)
• Computation and display of spatially consistent
  drought indicators on a global scale in situ
  (station) SPI, satellite-based indices, modeled
  soil moisture
• Support for Drought Mitigation, Preparedness,
  Response
• Drought Education, Research, Forecasting Tools
  Products

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Global Drought Monitor Portal http//www.drought.g
ov/portal/server.pt/community/global_drought
North American Drought Monitor European Drought
Observatory Princeton University African Drought
Monitor
Participating Continents
Current Global Drought Conditions University
College London
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Global Drought Monitor Portal Drill-down
capabilities to access national to local products
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Global Drought Monitor Portal How the IT Functions

• The GDMP is made interoperable with the GEO
  Global Earth Observation System of Systems
  (GEOSS)
• by utilizing Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web
  Mapping Services (WMS) and other web services
• to exchange drought maps (and other information)
  among existing continental and regional drought
  monitoring efforts .

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In summary, the GDMP is a new tool that

• provides global drought indicator information,
• provides an infrastructure which can be populated
  with drought information originating from nations
  across the world, and
• provides data and web services capabilities for
  display and analysis of climatic hydrologic
  data originating from participating nations thus
  it
• provides crucial support for drought monitoring
  and mitigation in semi-arid regions and other
  parts of the world, and
• serves as a foundation for the creation of a
  GDEWS.

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How Can NASA Contribute?

• Provide satellite-based global drought indicators
• Provide global modeled drought indicators (soil
  moisture, ET, etc.
• Other?

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Thank You!
Richard.Heim_at_noaa.gov Michael.J.Brewer_at_noaa.gov wi
ll.pozzi_at_gmail.com Global Drought Monitor Portal
http//www.drought.gov/portal/server.pt/communi
ty/global_drought North America Drought Monitor
http//www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/monitoring/d
rought/nadm/index.html http//www.drought.gov/port
al/server.pt/community/nadm/303 NIDIS US
Drought Portal http//drought.gov/