Drought Amelioration An Engagement-to-Implementation Success Story

SUMMARY. The PHDI-based drought recovery information provided on the NCEI website addresses the climatological component of drought recovery and provides an important foundation, or beginning, for the decision-maker to apply to their sector/context. Knowledge of reservoir levels and recharge rates, groundwater levels and geologic factors affecting their recharge rates, and management practices involving reservoirs and groundwater need to be applied separately and in addition to the information obtained from the NCEI tool. Regions that are heavily irrigated and where water is heavily managed, such as California, complicate the utility of the PHDI and other drought indices. But all drought is ultimately driven by precipitation, and the PHDI drought recovery tool provides invaluable information for this foundational variable. Participatory design is important as products and services are developed and enhanced by applying direct knowledge of the subject matter to the final end deliverable. The recently updated NCEI drought amelioration web tool, changes to which are consistent with suggestions made by workshop participants, is a direct reflection of this iterative co-design process. In addition, this process has also improved the relationships between users and NCEI scientists and has greatly facilitated NCEI scientists to better understand the underlying decision space in which users operate. It is important to emphasize, however, that engagement of this kind is not stagnant. User requirements are constantly evolving as conditions change, external pressures mount, and funding mechanisms are influenced by changes in local, state, and even national policies. Engagement to operations must remain an iterative, regularly occurring process to ensure the final product is not only current but also useful, usable, and used. © 2018 American Meteorological Society.