Drought Interest Group (DIG)

The WCRP Drought Interest Group (DIG) was formed as part of the WCRP Extremes crosscutting activity following a joint GEWEX-CLIVAR meeting in 2008. DIG aims to identify and leverage current drought research activities already underway within WCRP, especially under CLIVAR and GEWEX, through the activities of the VAMOS panel, the US CLIVAR Drought Working Group, and the GEWEX-Coordinated Energy and Water Cycle Observations Project (CEOP), etc. DIG will also assess the missing links in drought research and coordinate drought research at an international level in order to advance, in particular, predictive understanding of extremes.

Workshop on Drought Predictability and Prediction

DIG has now embarked on identifying strategic research needs in drought prediction and encouraging increased coordination of regional and international drought-research activities. A WCRP White Paper on ‘Drought Predictability and Prediction in a Changing Climate: Assessing Current Capabilities, User Requirements, and Research Priorities’ has been developed, to assess current prediction capabilities against user needs with the aim of identifying areas that would benefit from international coordination. A workshop was held on this topic on 2-4 March 2011 in Barcelona, Spain: WCRP Workshop on Drought Predictability and Prediction in a Changing Climate: Assessing Current Knowledge and Capabilities, User Requirements and Research Priorities.

Three major action items came out of the workshop, which were to 1) develop a drought cataglogue, 2) define case studies, and 3) develop a drought early warning system. These action items are further detailed in the workshop report.

Workshop on Global Drought Information System

The Eurpean Space Agency hosted the Global Drought Information System (GDIS) workshop at its facility in Frascati, Italy, from 11-13 April 2012. This was organised by the DIG under the third action item of the Barcelona meeting; to develop a drought early warning system.

Members

The members of the Drought Interest Group are listed here.

The ICPO contact for the Drought Interest Group is Jennifer Riley.

Publications

GDEWS Questionnaire. Questionnaire to assess the regional needs for a GDEWS (Global Drought Early Warning System). We would invite anyone to participate in the survey - please forward any completed questionnaires to Jennifer Riley.

Report on the WCRP Workshop on Drought Predictability and Prediction in a Changing Climate, 2-4 March 2011, Barcelona, Spain.

WCRP White Paper on ‘Drought Predictability and Prediction in a Changing Climate: Assessing Current Capabilities, User Requirements, and Research Priorities’.

WCRP Drought Interest Group (DIG) Coordinates Drought Research for Better Prediction of Regional Drought. D. Legler and A. Pirani, On behalf of the WCRP Drought Interest Group (DIG). CLIVAR Exchanges, 51, Oct 2009.