Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Water Resource Management Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

2012

Articles 1 - 8 of 8

Full-Text Articles in Water Resource Management

Agricultural Advisors: A Receptive Audience For Weather And Climate Information?, Linda Stalker Prokopy, Tonya Haigh, Amber Saylor Mase, Jim Angel, Chad Hart, Cody Knutson, Maria Carmen Lemos, Yun Jia Lo, Jean Mcguire, Lois Wright Morton, Jennifer Perron, Dennis Todey, Melissa Widhalm Nov 2012

Agricultural Advisors: A Receptive Audience For Weather And Climate Information?, Linda Stalker Prokopy, Tonya Haigh, Amber Saylor Mase, Jim Angel, Chad Hart, Cody Knutson, Maria Carmen Lemos, Yun Jia Lo, Jean Mcguire, Lois Wright Morton, Jennifer Perron, Dennis Todey, Melissa Widhalm

Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

As the climate in the midwestern United States becomes increasingly variable because of global climate change, it is critical to provide tools to the agricultural community to ensure adaptability and profitability of agricultural cropping systems. When used by farmers and their advisors, agricultural decision support tools can reduce uncertainty and risks in the planning, operation, and management decisions of the farm enterprise. Agricultural advisors have historically played a key role in providing information and guidance in these decisions. However, little is known about what these advisors know or think about weather and climate information and their willingness to incorporate this …


Standardized Precipitation Index: User Guide, Mark Svoboda, Michael Hayes, Deborah Wood Jan 2012

Standardized Precipitation Index: User Guide, Mark Svoboda, Michael Hayes, Deborah Wood

Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Over the years, there has been much discussion on what drought indices should be used in a particular climate and for what application. Many drought definitions and indices have been developed and attempts have been made to provide some guidance on this issue. With this in mind, the Interregional Workshop on Indices and Early Warning Systems for Drought was organized and held at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, United States of America, from 8 to 11 December 2009. It was jointly sponsored by the School of Natural Resources (SNR) of the University of Nebraska, the United States National Drought Mitigation Center …


Drought Monitoring: Historical And Current Perspectives, Michael J. Hayes, Mark D. Svoboda, Brian D. Wardlow, Martha C. Anderson, Felix Kogan Jan 2012

Drought Monitoring: Historical And Current Perspectives, Michael J. Hayes, Mark D. Svoboda, Brian D. Wardlow, Martha C. Anderson, Felix Kogan

Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Drought is a normal, recurring feature of climate throughout the world, with characteristics and impacts that can vary from region to region. Figure 1.1 illustrates the regular occurrence of drought within the United States between 1895 and 2010 with approximately 14% of the country, on average (plotted by black dotted line), experiencing severe to extreme drought conditions during any given year. Drought conditions can persist in a region for several years, as occurred in the United States in the 1930s, 1950s, and early 2000s, and tree ring and other proxy records confirm that multiple-year droughts are part of the long-term …


Thermal-Based Evaporative Stress Index For Monitoring Surface Moisture Depletion, Martha C. Anderson, Christopher R. Hain, Brian D. Wardlow, Agustin Pimstein, John R. Mecikalski, William P. Kustas Jan 2012

Thermal-Based Evaporative Stress Index For Monitoring Surface Moisture Depletion, Martha C. Anderson, Christopher R. Hain, Brian D. Wardlow, Agustin Pimstein, John R. Mecikalski, William P. Kustas

Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

The standard suite of indicators currently used in operational drought monitoring reflects anomalous conditions in several major components of the hydrologic budget—representing deficits in precipitation, soil moisture content, runoff, surface and groundwater storage, snowpack, and streamflow. In principle, it is useful to have a diversity of indices because drought can assume many forms (meteorological, agricultural, hydrological, and socioeconomic), over broad ranges in timescale (weeks to years), and with varied impacts of interest to different stakeholder groups. Farmers, for example, may be principally interested in soil moisture deficits, river forecasters will focus on streamflow fluctuations, and water managers will be concerned …


Drought Triggers And Declarations: Science And Policy Considerations For Drought Risk Management, Linda Courtenay Botterill, Michael J. Hayes Jan 2012

Drought Triggers And Declarations: Science And Policy Considerations For Drought Risk Management, Linda Courtenay Botterill, Michael J. Hayes

Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

This paper explores the value of triggers and declarations in the management of drought, bringing together two disciplinary perspectives, those of the public policy scholar and the climate scientist. These two perspectives highlight the complexity of the development and use of triggers in drought risk management by drawing on the experience of the United States, which has the most sophisticated system of drought triggers in the world, and that of Australia that has the most developed and longest standing national drought policy based on principles of risk management. The paper explores the advantages and disadvantages of triggers in managing drought, …


Future Opportunities And Challenges In Remote Sensing Of Drought, Brian D. Wardlow, Martha C. Anderson, Justin Sheffield, Bradley D. Doorn, James P. Verdin, Xiwu Zhan, Matthew Rodell Jan 2012

Future Opportunities And Challenges In Remote Sensing Of Drought, Brian D. Wardlow, Martha C. Anderson, Justin Sheffield, Bradley D. Doorn, James P. Verdin, Xiwu Zhan, Matthew Rodell

Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

The value of satellite remote sensing for drought monitoring was first realized more than two decades ago with the application of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) for assessing the effect of drought on vegetation, as summarized by Anyamba and Tucker (2012, Chapter 2). Other indices such as the Vegetation Health Index (VHI) (Kogan, 1995) were also developed during this time period and applied to AVHRR NDVI and brightness temperature data for routine global monitoring of drought conditions. These early efforts demonstrated the unique perspective that global imagers like AVHRR could provide …


Microwave Remote Sensing Of Soil Moisture Science And Applications, Son V. Nghiem, Brian D. Wardlow, David Allured, Mark Svoboda, Doug Lecomte, Matthew Rosencrans, Steven K. Chan, Gregory Neumann Jan 2012

Microwave Remote Sensing Of Soil Moisture Science And Applications, Son V. Nghiem, Brian D. Wardlow, David Allured, Mark Svoboda, Doug Lecomte, Matthew Rosencrans, Steven K. Chan, Gregory Neumann

Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Soil moisture is a fundamental link between global water and carbon cycles and has major applications in predicting natural hazards such as droughts and floods (National Research Council, 2007). From precipitation data, soil wetness can be estimated by hydrological land-surface models. In the United States, preliminary precipitation data are based on measurements gathered from many active stations nationwide each month, and it takes 3–4 months to assemble final, quality-controlled data. In the western United States, some climate divisions may have no stations reporting in a particular month or may lack first- or second-order stations, and significant blockages by mountains limit …


Climate Divisions For Alaska Based On Objective Methods, Peter A. Bieniek, Uma S. Bhatt, Richard L. Thoman, Heather Angeloff, James Partain, John Papineau, Frederick Fritsch, Eric Holloway, John E. Walsh, Christopher Daly, Martha Shulski, Gary Hufford, David F. Hill, Stavros Calos, Rudiger Gens Jan 2012

Climate Divisions For Alaska Based On Objective Methods, Peter A. Bieniek, Uma S. Bhatt, Richard L. Thoman, Heather Angeloff, James Partain, John Papineau, Frederick Fritsch, Eric Holloway, John E. Walsh, Christopher Daly, Martha Shulski, Gary Hufford, David F. Hill, Stavros Calos, Rudiger Gens

Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Alaska encompasses several climate types because of its vast size, high-latitude location, proximity to oceans, and complex topography. There is a great need to understand how climate varies regionally for climatic research and forecasting applications. Although climate-type zones have been established for Alaska on the basis of seasonal climatological mean behavior, there has been little attempt to construct climate divisions that identify regions with consistently homogeneous climatic variability. In this study, cluster analysis was applied to monthly-average temperature data from 1977 to 2010 at a robust set of weather stations to develop climate divisions for the state. Mean-adjusted Advanced Very …