NIDIS in Hawaii and the U.S. Affiliated Pacific Islands - Connecting with and Enhancing Existing Linkages to Support the Delivery of Drought and Freshwater-Related Products and Services

Hawaii and the six jurisdictions in the U.S. Affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI) are extremely vulnerable to drought events. Many of these islands in the Pacific are low-lying atolls, which are completely dependent on rainwater catchment systems for their drinking water. Islands that rely on groundwater wells are vulnerable to salt water intrusion during drought and inundation events, which can lead to public health issues. The risk of wildfire, and its potential impact on farming, ranching, and sensitive ecosystems is particularly acute during episodes of drought. The high spatial variability in rainfall across these geographically isolated island nations, many of which lack a network of in-situ observing sites, makes it difficult to monitor developing or ongoing drought conditions.

In recent years there has been a considerable amount of work to study drought in Hawai‘i from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, USDA Forest Service, East-West Center (EWC), NOAA Pacific RISA, State of Hawai‘i Department of Land and Natural Resources, and the USGS Pacific Islands Climate Adaptation Science Center (PI-CASC). This work has built an important foundation for understanding drought in Hawai‘i, but there is still a great deal of additional work that is needed to expand upon these efforts.

Working through NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) to connect with and enhance existing linkages will position NIDIS to address user-identified needs and requirements related to drought and water resources in the Pacific Islands region and, in turn, heighten regional awareness of and demand for NIDIS capabilities. Lead by a cross-organizational team, specific activities that will be carried out towards this end include: 

• Conducting stakeholder engagement dialogs and other such pathfinding activities within the Pacific Islands region towards the development of a regional action plan
• Supporting the development of location and sector-specific freshwater and drought-related products through the aggregation and transformation information necessary to make it actionable, in particular via climate early warning systems
• Supporting the application of water and drought-related products with respect to early-warning, response and recovery through regular training on how to access and use such information
• Conducting event-focused analysis as warranted to better understand and predict drought impacts.