Data-Intensive Drought Monitoring, Forecasting, and Outlooks for Climate-Resilient Water Management in Western Agriculture

Abstract:

Drought increasingly threatens the sustainability of regional water resources in many states in the United States. Drought has large economic impacts and significant environmental and societal effects. Although much research on drought at national, regional, and local scales has been conducted to mitigate drought impacts, still drought claims economic losses estimated at about $8.5 billion per year. One possible reason for such huge losses may be a lack of clear understanding of the characteristics of drought at local scales that the end user can relate to the particular water management constraints of their basin. Sustainable water management alternatives are explored and discussed to mitigate climate-induced drought impacts on western agriculture. Current drought monitoring, forecasting, and outlooks efforts are demonstrated along with visualization and research survey. Future direction for Big Drought research is also highlighted.