School of Natural Resources

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Breaking the Hydro-illogical Cycle Are we
making progress?
Donald A. Wilhite, Director School of Natural
Resources University of Nebraska
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The Dirty 30s . . a reference point
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The Great Depression will never happen again!
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Responding to the 1930s Drought

• First federal response to drought
• Combination of reactive and proactive responses
• Proactive responses emphasized building
  institutional capacity
• Creation of new federal infrastructure
• Public works projects
• Federal efforts in the 1930s sets a precedence
  for future federal involvement in drought
  response
• Similar practices were followed in the 1950s,
  i.e., a combination of reactive and proactive
  response measures.

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Designation of drought emergency areas, 1977.
What were the criteria used for designations?
1977
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• Criteria used by the Interagency Drought
  Coordinating Committee
• PDSI
• Political influence

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Drought impacts today are similar but more
complex as more economic sectors are affected,
creating more conflicts between water users.
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How do we break the cycle?
STOP!
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The Cycle of Disaster Management
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Movement from crisis to risk management . .
CRISIS MANAGEMENT
RISK MANAGEMENT
. . . . requires a paradigm shift!
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Principle Elements of Drought Risk Reduction
Framework
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National Drought Mitigation Center . . . . a
catalyst for change
Mission To lessen societal vulnerability to
drought by promoting planning and the adoption of
appropriate risk management techniques.
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Support for RISK-BASED DROUGHT MITIGATION
PLANNING . . . .
Federal
Regional
State/Local/Tribal
has been from the BOTTOM UP!
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Drought Planning Continuum
Response
Mitigation
Increasing need for more reliable seasonal
forecasts/outlooks
Increasing need for timely, reliable
climate/water supply assessments
Increasing need for higher resolution analysis
for policy/decision support
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The progression to drought mitigation planning .
. . . .
Demand for mitigation planning
Development of new monitoring tools
a synergistic relationship!
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New tools not only make the USDM task much easier
and the finished product more reliable,
these tools promote improved decisions by a
diverse set of users from local to national and
from managers to policy makers.
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Progress has been impressive . . . .
. . . . with more on the way!
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and then along comes . . .

• NIDIS

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Major Drivers of NIDIS

• Western Governors Association
• 1996 Recommendation for national preparation for
  and response to drought.
• 2000 Creation of National Drought Policy
  Commission.
• 2003 Partnership with NOAA to improve drought
  monitoring and forecasting.
• 2004 Formal document published recommending
  NIDIS.

• U.S. Congress
• The 109th Congress introduced a bill (H.R.
  1386/S. 802) to improve national drought
  preparedness, mitigation, and response efforts,
  etc.
• Subcommittee on Disaster Reduction (Presidents
  National Science and Technology Council)
• Highlighted drought as one of the grand
  challenges for disaster reduction in 2005.
• Proposed actions calls for developing an
  implementation plan for NIDIS.
• U.S. Integrated Earth Observing System
• NIDIS is one of six near term opportunities
  identified by U.S. GEO.

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Are we there yet?
Darn!
. . . but were making good progress!
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If we dont succeed, we run the risk of failure.

• Dan Quayle

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Thats all folks!
School of Natural Resources snr.unl.edu dwilhite2_at_
unl.edu