Ecological Drought: Concepts, Drought Metrics & Tools

 

Friday, April 22, 9:30am-11:30am MDT

Training/Tools

Facilitated by: Imtiaz Rangwala/ Wynne Moss/ Shelley Crausbay/ Stefan Tangen

Who is invited: The session is open to everyone. However, it is primarily geared toward managers and practitioners who have limited experience with applying quantitative drought information, and who are interested in clarifying important concepts related to ecological drought processes and also get a better sense of available useful tools and resources.

 

Ecological Drought: Concepts, Drought Metrics & Tools

This workshop-style session will (a) facilitate a discussion of basic concepts related to ecological drought, (b) relate processes and drivers of drought to specific metrics (e.g., soil moisture, evaporative demand) and indices (e.g., SPEI, FDSI, EDDI), and (c) demonstrate select online tools to visualize and quantify drought events in the historical period and under future climate scenarios. Some specific themes this discussion will cover include:

  • Develop a better understanding of ecological drought and the different ways it can manifest
  • Selecting appropriate metrics or drought indices to understand drought risk associated with specific climate drivers or hydroclimatic conditions
  • Using the DrIP tool (https://droughtindexportal.colorado.edu/) to visualize and extract data associated with a specific drought index for a region.
  • Using available online tools to understand (1) the frequency with which historically-observed extreme droughts could occur in the future and (2) how future drought intensity will change