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| WMO | TUE 16 Mar 2010 |  |
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NR/09Experts Make Progress in Identifying Global Drought Monitoring Indicators
Bonn, 22 December 2009. Drought experts have agreed on one indicator to determine the presence of a drought, but are yet to reach consensus on two other crucial indicators, that would enable the global community to determine the on-set and severity of drought. Agreement was reached that meteorological drought will be monitored using the standard precipitation index (SPI), which refers to a decrease in precipitation levels of say, rainfall or snowfall, below a pre-determined level over an agreed duration. However, measures to monitor agricultural and hydrological droughts were left pending. Agricultural drought refers to the availability of soil water to support crop and forage growth. Hydrological drought refers to a deviation in surface and subsurface water supplies from some average condition at various points in time. According to the experts, drawn from all regions of the world and who met at the University of Nebraska, developing consensus indicators for agricultural and hydrological droughts is complex because human and social behaviour is involved. Even so, they agreed to work towards achieving this goal for both aspects. The experts’ meeting was convened in response to growing concern among governments and the international community of the increased frequencies, intensities and impacts of drought over the last 25 years. Worse, the 2007 Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has projected an increase in severe droughts in continental USA and Mexico, the Mediterranean Basin, parts of northern China, the southern Africa sub-region, Australia and parts of South America.
The outcomes of recent droughts, such as widespread hunger, heat waves and forest fires have led to a growing concern about the future economic, social, and political impacts of drought. By using standardized indicators to monitor changes in soil moisture, water resource availability and precipitation, scientists hope to improve the provision of early warnings on drought, anticipate drought effects and provide policy-makers with the information they need to plan and manage drought. The experts also recognized a fourth type of drought, socio-economic drought, but confined their deliberations to the other three. The UN Convention to Combat Desertification is mandated to mitigate the effects of drought. It plans to build on the Workshop outcomes and develop a harmonized baseline of impact indicators for drought mitigation measures that countries can use in their national action programmes. The precipitation data to be collected with the assistance of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) will provide UNCCD parties with the kind of quantitative data they need to generate information and knowledge for decision-making and planning. The experts meeting of 8-11 December was jointly sponsored by the School of Natural Resources of the University of Nebraska, the US National Drought Mitigation Center, WMO, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). Click here to download the short report on the Workshop prepared by the UNCCD The Workshop Declaration is available online.
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Experts on Drought Converge in Lincoln, Nebraska
Bonn, 8 December 2009. “Unlike in the past where the most affected were rural populations in the developing countries, urban populations as well as middle-class families from affluent societies that are located in the drylands are increasingly faced with new drought-related threats such as the recent devastating forest fires in Australia, Europe and North America, and sand storms,” says Executive Secretary Luc Gnacadja of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. “Severe water stress and its associated effects from drought are recurring patterns and growing problems in many of the world’s drylands. The ability to deal with the effects of drought in a timely manner is urgent considering that over two billion people – that is one in every three people – today live in the drylands. This is why the international meeting of experts on drought monitoring and assessment meeting at the Inter-Regional Workshop on Indices and Early Warning Systems for Drought from 8-11 December 2009, in Lincoln, Nebraska, has great significance for the international community,” he concluded. The workshop brings together experts on drought issues from the African, Asian, South American, North American, South West Pacific and European regions. They will examine drought indices and early warning systems for drought in use in various regions, drought impacts, hydrological and agricultural droughts, current and emerging technologies in drought monitoring and propose standard indices for different types of droughts. They will also consider ways to implement and improve drought early warning systems. John Owens, Vice-Chancellor of the Institute of Agriculture & Natural Resources and Vice-President of the University of Nebraska, Prem Paul, Vice-Chancellor for Research and Economic Development, University of Nebraska, and M.V.K. Sivakumar of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Switzerland, will address the Workshop. The Workshop is co-sponsored by the World Meteorological Organization, United States Department of Agriculture, the National Drought Mitigation Centre (United States), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
For details of the event, click here.
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