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National Listening Session Series Next Steps: Drought Prediction and Water Availability

Event Date
October 20, 2022
Event Time
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Timezone
EDT
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The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and NOAA’s National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) hosted a series of listening sessions on Drought Prediction and Water Availability to seek input on priorities and needs related to predicting water availability changes under drought conditions at national and regional scales. This input will be used to guide USGS Drought Program planning and orientation, as well as to inform other national drought programs.

This final webinar in the series was held on October 20, 2022, and provided an overview and synthesis of key take-aways from the series of listening sessions, discussion of next steps, and time for Q&A and participant feedback. 

For more information, see the final USGS-NIDIS report on this series: Drought Prediction and Water Availability: A Report on the 2022 USGS-NIDIS National Listening Session Series.

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0:00

Introduction and Welcome

Speakers: Marina Skumanich, NOAA/NIDIS, National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network

 

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4:50

Who Did We Hear From? Participants in the Listening Sessions

Speaker: Joel Lisonbee, NOAA/NIDIS, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES)

  • Where attendees were located
  • How they use hydrologic information
  • What type of organization they work for

 

Timestamp
7:55

Report Out on Questions 1–3: Setting the Context

Speaker: Joel Lisonbee, NOAA/NIDIS, CIRES

  • Q1: How do you use hydrologic information to anticipate change?
  • Q2: What are the challenges you face doing this? What makes your job hard?
  • Q3: What products or indices do you currently use?

 

Timestamp
17:00

Report Out on Question 4: What improvements to hydrologic information and prediction would help you the most?

Speaker: Erik Smith, Water-Use Data and Research Program Coordinator, USGS

  • 4 key themes: Data production, data access, assessments, forecasts
  • How these themes relate to decision making
  • Data production: More monitoring data
  • Data Access: 1-stop shop, interactive portals, etc.
  • Assessments: Groundwater/surface water interaction, better understanding of overall systems
  • Forecasts: Need for prediction and models of all types, addressing uncertainty

 

Timestamp
31:15

Key Takeaways

Speakers: Marina Skumanich, NOAA/NIDIS, NCSMMN; Joel Lisonbee, NOAA/NIDIS, CIRES; Stacey Archfield, USGS; John Hammond, USGS

  • As We Expected: Key themes we expected
  • Ah-Ha Moments:  Some themes that surprised us
  • Next Steps: How NIDIS and USGS will apply this information 

 

Timestamp
43:45

Q&A and Discussion

Speakers: All Panelists

Read the questions and answers from this webinar (PDF).

 

Timestamp
59:10

End of Recording

This concludes this series of listening sessions. Links and recordings of past sessions can be found below:

 

Key Partners

U.S. Geological Survey logo.

U.S. Geological Survey

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National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

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