Alys Thomas, co-sponsored by Soil, Water & Environmental Science

In March 2003, the Governor’s Drought Task Force developed the Arizona Drought Preparedness Plan which addresses drought issues facing Arizona residents. This “force” includes a Monitoring Technical Committee (“MTC”) and Local Drought Impact Groups (“LDIGs”), whose main purpose is to provide important information to the Arizona Department of Water Resources (“ADWR”) regarding drought conditions and actual local impacts to water users. Presently, the MTC includes a national-scale Vegetation Health Index image produced monthly with Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data, from the NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service; yet, little is done with this or similar ‘greenness’ products in the monitoring of monthly drought status changes, due to the difficulty in interpreting the imagery over Arizona’s diverse landscape (low desert scrub areas to mixed-conifer forests), and its potential relationship to climate variability. In Arizona, LDIGs are extremely important because individual assessments of drought status can be made on smaller scales; smaller sections of Arizona’s diverse landscape. Access to climate and drought monitoring information and data is critical for these groups to ensure the most informed decision making. Climate, satellite, and drought information is readily accessible, but training on how to use these products is not available outside of a structured academic environment.

My project will develop an educational program for county-level drought assessment groups that will quickly and efficiently allow them to make use of NDVI satellite imagery products as drought monitoring tools in county-level planning agendas. The end result of such an educational program will be that county drought planning groups be able to incorporate satellite data products in their plan development by utilizing vegetation indices in drought monitoring. The Drought Task Force planning process was designed to encourage the use of the latest scientific information, particularly climate data. In addition to its strong science focus, the process is designed to maximize stakeholder input over time.

The focus is solely Arizona LDIGs (county-level groups created voluntarily to coordinate drought public awareness, provide impact assessment information to local and state leaders, and implement and initiate local mitigation). The first phase will focus on NDVI and climate analyses; the second phase will incorporate these analyses into a tool that can be used in drought monitoring and possibly prediction; the third phase will initiate outreach and workshops for LDIGs to work hands on with the NDVI/climate tool and become comfortable with using satellite data products in their drought monitoring efforts. The expected outcome is increased knowledge and usage of NDVI data products as drought monitoring tools and information sharing from local communities to state levels. This will lead to improved reporting on local conditions and variations as well as more effective drought strategies and mitigation for smaller communities.