Planning for Drought in the Warming and Drying Southwest: Drought Indicators to Support Tribal Decision Making in the Four Corners
The goal of this project is to work with the Hopi Tribe's Dept. of Natural Resources (HDNR) to develop a set of drought indicators and approaches for collecting, analyzing, and utilizing the data needed to support each indicator. In addition to indicators that rely on available temperature and precipitation data, we hope to develop a complementary suite of indicators that utilizes drought impacts information the HDNR has begun to collect. The integrated suite of indicators and processes to support monitoring them will: provide the foundation for revisions to the Hopi Tribe's current drought management and response plan; result in a new stream of locally-derived data and information that could provide input to national drought products like the U.S. Drought Monitor; and be the backbone of a system that would provide local, regional, and national decision makers better insight into developing drought conditions before an event reaches critical levels.