NOAA Drought Seminar Series: From Hazards to Consequences: Toward Impact-Based Drought Monitoring and Prediction

Satellites and computer models have made it much easier to track droughts as they happen. However, most tools today only look at weather conditions rather than the actual damage droughts cause. They also tend to miss related problems that happen at the same time or right after, such as heatwaves, wildfires, floods, and mudslides. This presentation explains impact-based drought monitoring, an approach that links drought to its physical and societal impacts, such as lost crops, food availability, lower energy output, or job losses.

Putting this impact-focused approach into practice isn't easy. We currently lack complete data on drought impacts, accurate local information on human water use, and good ways to connect impact assessment with traditional drought monitoring tools. To fix this, we must look beyond just climate data and also consider how human dimensions contribute to and shape droughts.

In this seminar, Amir AghaKouchak, University of California Irvine, will give a presentation, "From Hazards to Consequences: Toward Impact-Based Drought Monitoring and Prediction."

About the Seminar Series

This event is part of the NOAA Drought Seminar Series, a collaborative effort between NOAA Research's Physical Sciences Laboratory, the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS), and the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center. The series aims to enhance NOAA's capability to monitor, predict, and understand drought behavior. Drought is a key part of NOAA Research's science priorities aimed at confronting the challenges of a changing planet. It is also a key focus of National Weather Service operational forecast products and services, supporting stakeholder decision-making and reducing drought-related costs and impacts.

Each session will feature a speaker presentation, a question and answer period with the presenter, and general updates on activities within the drought science and services community. Individual session information, including connection details, is available on the NOAA Drought Seminar Series web page. These seminars will be recorded.

The Physical Sciences Laboratory (PSL) and National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) are part of NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.

For additional information, please contact Andy Hoell with NOAA Research's Physical Sciences Laboratory.