The technical workshop focused largely on better understanding and assessing the phenomenon itself by breaking the topic down into four sub-topics:
(1) considering climate variability and drought assessment; (2) understanding drought in an aridifying (drier-trending) climate; (3) discerning drought in a humidifying (wetter-trending) climate; and (4) defining drought in terms of risk and likelihood of event.
This report captures the ideas and feedback of more than 100 subject matter experts from over 44 institutions across the drought research and practitioner communities who participated in the meeting and reviewed this report. The two-day meeting identified priority actions and outstanding research questions that would continue to advance drought assessment in a changing climate.

From the large volume of input received at the meeting, ideas were collated and refined; however, they were not distilled down to a few top priorities, nor were ideas further fleshed out to incorporate a prescriptive scale for implementation. Instead, this report captures the breadth of feedback from the meeting itself.
In total, the report highlights priority actions and research questions across the following fifteen focus areas to improve drought assessment by addressing gaps identified by the research and practitioner community.

This report was developed as part of a Drought Assessment in a Changing Climate Technical Working Meeting co-hosted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Climate Hubs and held in Boulder, CO, on February 28–March 1, 2023. The technical workshop gathered scientists and practitioners from federal, tribal, state, and local
agencies and academic institutions to consider research questions and priority actions that could advance drought assessment practices to account for a changing climate. We greatly appreciate the many partners who contributed their time and effort to coordinate, inform, and participate in the pre-workshop webinar and technical workshop, which provided the rich material for the development of this document.

This report summarizes the ideas shared by the participants listed below at the technical working meeting as well as ideas contributed by reviewers. Drafting, coordinating review, and publication of the report was led by workshop planning team members Britt Parker, Joel Lisonbee, and Elizabeth Ossowski with support from Holly Prendeville and Dennis Todey. In addition to the many participants who provided feedback on this report, we would also like to thank technical experts from USDA, NOAA, and academic institutions who provided review of the report including Mark Brusberg, Jessica Halofsky, Bill Hohenstein, Ben Livneh, and Kristin VanderMolen.
The priority actions and research questions resulting from the workshop reflect the dialogue and discussion of its attendees, and do not represent official Administration policy or position, or an official policy or position of the individual organizations/agencies represented at the workshop.