Southern Plains Drought Early Warning System Strategic Plan

The Southern Plains DEWS Strategic Plan outlines priority tasks and activities across the region to build drought early warning capacity and resilience. It includes a list of current partners, outcomes, and key milestones. The Plan is a “living document” to which additional actions and partners may be added as needed. Development of the Plan began in 2016 in stakeholder meetings to discuss existing drought-related activities and partnerships throughout the Southern Plains region, to prioritize needs for drought-related information identified during the DEWS 2011-2014 drought forums, and to outline a draft Plan to guide next steps.

The Southern Plains DEWS prioritizes the following aims necessary to building drought early warning capacity and long-term drought resilience throughout the Southern Plains region:

• Priority 1 – Foster Stakeholder Collaboration, Coordination, and Relationship Building - This priority calls for cultivating a culture of interagency collaboration and information-sharing throughout the Southern Plains DEWS region. Related actions include coordinated calls, as well as meetings and workshops to facilitate informed discussion on drought among federal, tribal, state, and local agencies.
• Priority 2 – Improve Drought Early Warning Outreach and Communication - This priority focuses on actions that can improve communications and outreach on drought and drought-related climate events. Related actions include improved communications on the U.S. Drought Portal’s (www.drought.gov) Southern Plains DEWS webpage, targeted communication and outreach to key stakeholders on drought and climate outlook information, and a workshop on improving drought messaging to the public.
• Priority 3 – Support Research on Key Water Resources and Land Management Topics – This priority focuses on supporting research on water resource and land management issues related to drought and associated impacts that were identified during the DEWS 2011-2014 drought forums.
• Priority 4 – Improve the Application of Climate Forecasts – This priority focuses on developing sound and actionable information and climate forecast products. NIDIS and stakeholders will cultivate the relationship between climate service providers and decision makers, agencies, researchers, and managers to improve the usability, reliability, and timeliness of climate data for drought research and management needs. Related actions include an assessment on how climate forecasts are used in the Southern Plains and a workshop to foster open communication between the climate forecast providers and end users.
• Priority 5 – Improve Drought Planning - This priority focuses on actions that can support and improve drought preparedness and planning across longer time horizons throughout the region. Activities include a study on the current state of long-term drought resilience in the region and drought simulations.