Midwest DEWS Webinar: Developing an Impacts-Based Framework for Drought Mitigation in Ohio: January 24, 2024

Welcome to the Midwest DEWS Webinar

Speaker: Molly Woloszyn, NOAA's National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS); CU Boulder / Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES)

• NOAA’s NIDIS was created by Congress in 2006 with a mandate to help the nation prepare for, mitigate, and respond to the effects of drought. NIDIS does this through a series of activities, including the development of regional drought early warning systems and support to improve drought predictions and forecasting, enable effective drought planning and preparedness, and assess the impacts of drought. 

Developing an Impacts-Based Framework for Drought Mitigation in Ohio

Speakers: Dr. Aaron Wilson, State Climate Office of Ohio, Ohio State University; Dr. Steven Quiring, Ohio State University

• The motivating factor for this project is to provide timely and accurate drought information and tools to support a science-driven state drought monitoring process, which feeds into the U.S. Drought Monitor and Ohio’s drought declaration process, which is done through the Ohio Emergency Management Agency. This process and methodology could be adopted by other states to identify state-based drought indicators for drought monitoring.
• Key highlights from the research:
  • The goal of the first objective is to identify which indicators and timescales work best in Ohio. It was found that for agricultural drought, corn and soybean yields are most correlated to 3-month Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), and Palmer Z-Index. For hydrological drought, streamflow percentiles are most correlated to 9-month SPI, SPEI, and Z-Index. And for ecological drought, mammal, fish, and bird populations are most correlated to 6- to 9-month SPI and SPEI (and the Evaporative Demand Drought Index, or EDDI, in some cases).
  • This project developed an online dashboard for drought monitoring in Ohio that highlights the key indicators by type of drought for users to use.
  • This project developed objective-based thresholds using drought impacts and found that drought impacts in Ohio typically begin at thresholds that are less severe than is commonly used with fixed thresholds. This means that traditional drought monitoring methods may be underestimating drought conditions and impacts in the state.
• The methods that are developed in this project for assessing drought impacts and determining impacts-based drought thresholds can be readily applied by other states to inform regional and national best practices on drought monitoring and drought impact assessment.

Conclusion and Q&A

Moderator: Molly Woloszyn, NOAA/NIDIS, CU Boulder/CIRES