Categorizing Urban Landscapes to Assess Drought Vulnerability

Abstract:

Understanding the urban residential landscape can provide a conceptual framework for managing drought in the urban environment.  The main objective of this CLIMAS project is to categorize urban landscapes and to use this knowledge of urban landscape categories to assess urban landscape drought vulnerability. The project also involves developing robust water budget estimates for each landscape category.

An decision support tool has been designed to improve drought management in urban landscapes in Albuquerque, NM. The Web tool allows users to estimate their monthly or yearly landscape water budgets based on inputs such as size of the landscaped area, plant composition, and the current ENSO signal.
 

Project Partners:

• Southeast Climate Consortium