Drought monitoring

"Drought monitoring involves measuring changes in precipitation, temperature, and surface and groundwater supplies, among other factors. Although some drought events (such as flash drought) can emerge relatively quickly, droughts are typically creeping, slowly emerging disasters that can be monitored over time as they develop. Identifying the types of impacts to which a region is vulnerable is important in selecting drought indicators for a particular drought monitoring and early warning process. A drought early warning system can then initiate actions that mitigate the impacts of drought on a community" (World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and Global Water Partnership (GWP) 2016)

Sources

World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), and Global Water Partnership (GWP). 2016. Handbook of Drought Indicators and Indices. Geneva: Integrated Drought Management Programme (IDMP). https://doi.org/10.1201/9781315265551-12.

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Article

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Event

Project / Mission / Initiative / Community Portal

Alpine Drought Observatory

Droughts are becoming an increasing concern in the Alps and in the lowland areas that receive Alpine water. The Alpine Drought Observatory (ADO) provides a tool for a quick and easy overview of the current drought situation in the Alpine region and past drought situations in the last 6 months as maps and the last 40 years as timeseries.

Person

Software/Tool/(Web-)App

JAXA Climate Rainfall Watch

A need to monitor precipitation extremes from space is widely recognized, especially for regions where ground-based observations are limited or unavailable. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has developed the Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation (GSMaP) in the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission. The JAXA participated in the Space-based Weather and Climate Extremes Monitoring (SWCEM) of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) by providing the GSMaP Near-real-time Rainfall Product.