Local Drought Impact Groups in Arizona

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Local Drought Impact Groups in Arizona
Mike Crimmins Dept. of Soil, Water, Env.
Science Arizona Cooperative Extension The
University of Arizona
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Arizona Drought Preparedness Plan Organizational
Structure
Monitoring Preparedness
From ADWR 2006
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Local Drought Impact Groups

• Geographic Scale County-level
• Leadership Organized and coordinated by local
  Cooperative Extension and Emergency Management
  oversight by AZ Dept of Water Resources
• Membership Local municipal officials, natural
  resource managers, agricultural producers, water
  mangers/providers, concerned citizens/watershed
  groups
• Function Organize local-level drought impact
  monitoring, assess local vulnerabilities, develop
  response, mitigation, and outreach plans

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LDIG Development

• Six established groups
• Two in initial meetings stage
• Six to be developed over next 2 years

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LDIG Activities

• Development of subcommittees monitoring,
  mitigation/response, education/outreach
• Quarterly full group meetings, periodic
  subcommittee meetings
• Developing monitoring plans/recruiting volunteers
  (impact reporting, precipitation)
• Providing local reports for state drought status
  maps
• Finding local support (), initiating local
  efforts (e.g. Santa Cruz NRCD meteorological
  stations with soil moisture at several ranches
  throughout county)

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Successes and Challenges

• LDIG meetings have been well attended broad
  interest in drought monitoring and preparedness
• Are all of the necessary stakeholders at the
  table in each county?
• Volunteer participation has continued beyond
  initial planning stages enthusiasm and interest
  continues, but
• No financial support for coordination or
  activities at county level how long can
  initiatives be maintained?
• Exciting, innovative approach to drought
  monitoring and planning
• Exciting, innovative approach to drought
  monitoring and planning

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Arizona Drought Impact Reporting System

• Impact monitoring key LDIG task
• Why? better characterizations of drought,
  vulnerability assessments
• Requested development of tool to facilitate
  collection and synthesis of impact reports
• Initial effort was a hardcopy impact checklist
  adapted from Colorado Drought Plan iteratively
  adjusted with feedback from all LDIGs
• Request for transition to web-based tool

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AZ-DIRS Development

• Temporary, form-based system (v1.0) deployed for
  testing in 2006
• Feedback from LDIGs and MTC focus group
  meetings, teleconference meetings, and email
  communications
• Mock up system being used to gain feedback on
  system design, features, and general structure ?
  continued interaction with LDIGs to guide
  development process
• Operational system in place by spring 2008

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AZ-DIRS v1.0

• Project Partners
• AZ Governors Drought
• Task Force
• Arizona Coop. Ext.
• Arizona Dept. of Water
• Resources ()
• USDA-NRCS ()
• NDMC ()
• University of Arizona
• Research Centers
• (SAHRA(), WRRC()
• OALS)
• County LDIGs

• http//java.arid.arizona.edu/ccdis

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AZ-DIRS v2.0
Impact observed? Yes/No
yes
no
Trends, specific impact details, and additional
geographic info provided here
http//dirs.arid.arizona.edu/index.html
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AZ-DIRS Impact reporting sectors

• Agricultural Operations
• Livestock Production and Rangelands
• Economic, Cultural, Recreation
• Aquatic Species/Riparian Areas
• Terrestrial Wildlife
• Plant Communities/Ecosystem Function
• Hydrology/Water Resources

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Impact Reporting Units HUC 10 Watersheds
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AZ-DIRS v2.0
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AZ-DIRS Custom Features

• User profile management (customize geographic
  areas, sectors)
• Observed impacts will be switched on/off each
  month
• Automated email notifications will remind
  observers to revisit previously reported impacts
  (e.g. turn off impact that is no longer
  occurring
• Notification when impacts are reported in
  geographic areas of interest (RSS feeds, email
  alerts)

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AZ-DIRS Custom Features

• Additional data types (e.g. NRCS/NRCD vegetation
  monitoring, photo points)
• Google Map platform will allow impact maps to be
  exported into Google Earth
• Customized reporting (agencies vs. media)
• Integration into Arizona Hydrologic Information
  System (Rainlog, Arizona Flood Warning Drought
  Monitoring System, Arizona Wells Database)
• Coordination/connection to National Drought
  Impacts Reporter

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Implementation of AZ-DIRS

• Identify key impact reporters (by watershed and
  sector)
• Training workshops
• Web-based training materials
• Administrative tools ? LDIGs manage impact
  reporter accounts
• Monthly/quarterly reports
• Additional reports based on requests to reporter
  email list

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Stay tunedcrimmins_at_u.arizona.eduhttp//cals.ar
izona.edu/climate