Ecological Drought: Concepts, Drought Metrics, & Tools
The North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center (CASC) is hosting this workshop as part of its Climate Solutions Days to facilitate a discussion of basic concepts related to ecological drought; relate processes and drivers of drought to specific metrics (e.g., soil moisture, evaporative demand) and indices (e.g., SPEI, FDSI, EDDI); and demonstrate select online tools to visualize and quantify drought events in the historical period and under future climate scenarios.
This discussion will include:
- Develop a better understanding of ecological drought and the different ways it can manifest
- Selecting appropriate metrics or drought indices to understand drought risk associated with specific climate drivers or hydroclimatic conditions
- Using the DrIP tool to visualize and extract data associated with a specific drought index for a region.
- Using available online tools to understand (1) the frequency with which historically-observed extreme droughts could occur in the future and (2) how future drought intensity will change
Workshop facilitators:
- Imtiaz Rangwala, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado Boulder
- Wynne Moss, Conservation Science Partners
- Shelley Crausbay, Conservation Science Partners
- Stefan Tangen, Great Plains Tribal Water Alliance
Who is invited: The session is open to everyone. However, it is primarily geared toward managers and practitioners who have limited experience with applying quantitative drought information, and who are interested in clarifying important concepts related to ecological drought processes and also get a better sense of available useful tools and resources.
