National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) 

Near-Term Opportunity Plan

PRE-PUBLICATION September 2006 

Status Version Owner Date Page 

Pre-publication Secretariat 2006-0925 2 of 20 

Final layout may change. Contact the USGEO Secretariat with questions: 202-482-0655. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

1. PREFACE ................................................................................................................... 3

2. THE OPPORTUNITY .................................................................................................. 3

2.1 WESTERN GOVERNORS’ ASSOCIATION – THE NATIONAL INTEGRATED DROUGHT 

INFORMATION SYSTEM ............................................................................................ 3

2.2 NIDIS EARLY OPPORTUNITIES AND RELATIONSHIPS TO BUSINESS PROCESSES AND 

REQUIREMENTS ...................................................................................................... 4

3. NEAR-TERM OPPORTUNITIES FOR NIDIS ............................................................. 5

3.1 IMPROVED FREQUENCY, TIMELINESS, AND DENSITY OF KEY OBSERVATIONS.......... 5

3.2 U.S. DROUGHT PORTAL .................................................................................. 10

3.3 NIDIS OPERATIONS OFFICE ............................................................................ 12

3.4 SUMMARY....................................................................................................... 14

4. ELEMENTS OF A COMPREHENSIVE NIDIS BUSINESS PLAN ............................ 14

4.1 BENCHMARK DROUGHT MONITORING NETWORK................................................ 14

4.2 MODEL ANALYSIS............................................................................................ 15

5. BEYOND THE NEAR TERM: RESEARCH SUPPORTING DROUGHT RISK 

ASSESSMENT AND DROUGHT RISK MANAGEMENT ............................................. 15

APPENDIX A: NIDIS FUNCTIONAL BUSINESS MODEL ........................................... 16
Status Version Owner Date Page 

Pre-publication Secretariat 2006-0925 3 of 20 

Final layout may change. Contact the USGEO Secretariat with questions: 202-482-0655. 

1. PREFACE 

This plan was prepared by the U.S. Group on Earth Observations1 and is one of six near-term opportunities identified in 

the Strategic Plan for the U.S. Integrated Earth Observation System2

. Near-term opportunities in this context are: identifying 

observing systems or integration of components that meet high priority societal needs, and making improvements to 

inadequate existing systems that can be completed within 5 years and have tangible, measurable results. Further, the 

plans provide a framework for prioritizing actions and addressing critical gaps that will maximize the return on 

investments. The near-term opportunities are: 

 Improved Observations for Disaster Warnings (published September 2006); 

 Global Land Observation System (in development); 

 Sea Level Observation System (in development); 

 National Integrated Drought Information System (published September 2006); 

 Air Quality Assessment and Forecast System (published September 2006); and 

 Architecture and Data Management (in development). 

2. THE OPPORTUNITY 

Drought is a persistent water deficiency that has adverse effects on vegetation, animals, and people. Though drought is 

a slow-onset disaster when compared to hurricanes, earthquakes, or other natural disasters, it is one of the most 

destructive natural events, and occurs somewhere in the U.S. every year. The Federal Emergency Management Agency 

estimates the annual direct losses to the United States due to drought to be $6-8 billion, making it, on average, one of the 

most costly of all natural disasters affecting our Nation.3 The National Drought Policy Commission reported in 2000 

that the Nation needed to initiate a process to improve collaboration among scientists and managers to enhance the 

effectiveness of observation networks, monitoring, prediction, information delivery, and applied research, and to foster 

public understanding of and preparedness for drought. 

Numerous sectors require timely and accurate drought data, information, and forecasts to mitigate drought-related 

impacts. For example, the Bonneville Power Administration, like most utilities using hydropower, depends on water 

supply forecasts and drought information for hydropower management decisions. The Federal Energy Regulatory 

Commission considers federal drought monitoring analyses in the recertification process for U.S. power facilities. 

Moreover, in the Klamath Basin, lake-water supply forecasts are used to help plan lake outflows based on the competing 

needs of agricultural irrigation and the requirements of endangered fish species. 

 

Agribusiness depends upon timely drought-related information to operate efficiently and mitigate drought-related losses. 

Purchasing decisions for hay and other feed supplies are enhanced through the use of drought information to identify 

areas of greatest demand and the potential for shortages. The USDA Agricultural Outlook Board depends on U.S. 

Drought Monitor analyses for long-term commodity projections, agriculture supply and demand estimate reports, and its 

Weekly Weather and Crop Bulletins. Drought monitoring and forecast information are used by the Kansas City and 

Chicago Boards of Trade in futures pricing of U.S. commodities, and brokering companies rely on similar information 

for assessing impacts to grain futures and for providing advisories to customers. 

Also, municipalities and state agencies are dependent on drought-related data, information, and forecasts to allocate 

county-specific domestic and industrial water usage. Drought information, specifically U.S. Drought Monitor data and 

information, is used in allocating federal emergency drought relief for affected counties. Inadequacies in current 

monitoring networks and drought processes can compromise decisions that are made on a county-level basis. 

2.1 WESTERN GOVERNORS’ ASSOCIATION – THE NATIONAL INTEGRATED DROUGHT INFORMATION SYSTEM

In 2004, the Western Governors’ Association (WGA) developed a set of requirements, through a broad-based team of 

Federal and non-Federal partners, for a National Integrated Drought Information System. These requirements were 

developed in conjunction with the National Drought Policy Commission’s report to Congress and the pending National 

Drought Preparedness Act before Congress. This Near-Term Opportunity Plan was developed in response to the WGA 

 

1 The United States Group on Earth Observations (USGEO) was established in March 2005 as a standing subcommittee of the National Science and 

Technology Council Committee on Environment and Natural Resources. 

2 http://usgeo.gov/docs/EOCStrategic_Plan.pdf 

3 Federal Emergency Management Agency, 1995. National Mitigation Strategy: Partnerships for Building Safer Communities. Washington, D.C. 
Status Version Owner Date Page 

Pre-publication Secretariat 2006-0925 4 of 20 

Final layout may change. Contact the USGEO Secretariat with questions: 202-482-0655. 

report, Creating a Drought Early Warning System for the 21st Century – The National Integrated Drought Information System 

(NIDIS).

4

 

In recognition of the drought prediction and management challenge, the President’s National Science and Technology 

Council (NSTC) Subcommittee on Disaster Reduction (SDR) highlighted drought as part of its 2005 report, Grand 

Challenges for Disaster Reduction. In a follow-up 2006 publication, the SDR they called for specific NIDIS implementation 

actions based on the recommendations in the WGA report. Similarly, the IEOS Strategic Plan calls for the development 

of NIDIS. 

As described below, observational tools developed for NIDIS will also provide scientists with important data to advance 

our understanding of climate variability and change. In particular, as observations of heat and moisture transfer between 

land and atmosphere improve, valuable information about changes in evaporation and soil moisture, which are 

important indicators of climate shifts, will be gained. 

2.2 NIDIS EARLY OPPORTUNITIES AND RELATIONSHIPS TO BUSINESS PROCESSES AND REQUIREMENTS

The NIDIS plan is built around a series of “business requirements” outlined in the WGA document5 and summarized in 

Appendix A. These NIDIS business requirements include: physical science and socio-economic research, observations, 

monitoring and predictions, analysis, informing, making decisions and taking action, risk reduction research, educating, 

planning, and NIDIS Operations. The relationship between these various functional business requirements is shown in 

Figure 1. 

A NIDIS operations strategy serves to link all of the business requirements and to consider important data and 

information management needs that are common to all of the business requirements. 

 

4 http://www/westgov.org/wga/publicat/NIDIS.pdf

5 IBID 

Physical Science & 

Socioeconomic 

Research

Observe

Monitor and 

Predict

Analyze

Inform

Risk 

Reduction 

Research

Make 

Decisions & 

Take Action

Plan

Educate

NIDIS Operations

NIDIS NTO Planned Functions

Figure 1. NIDIS business plan 
Status Version Owner Date Page 

Pre-publication Secretariat 2006-0925 5 of 20 

Final layout may change. Contact the USGEO Secretariat with questions: 202-482-0655. 

3. NEAR-TERM OPPORTUNITIES FOR NIDIS 

Each business requirement of the NIDIS plan has been analyzed, and critical gaps have been identified that can be 

quickly and effectively closed by investing in research and technology development. These gaps currently pose serious 

limitations on the ability of national, regional, and local managers to prepare for, cope with, and mitigate the hardships 

and costs related to droughts in the United States, but can be remedied in the short term. Over the longer term, we 

intend to address the remaining gaps within the NIDIS plan so that all of the NIDIS business requirements can be fully 

implemented. 

The Near-Term Opportunities (NTO), described below, include: 

1) Improved Frequency, Timeliness, and Density of Key Observations (within the observations business function); 

2) The development of a U.S. Drought Data Portal (USDP) (within the data management business function); and 

3) Improved Coordination of NIDIS Operations (within the coordination business function). 

3.1 IMPROVED FREQUENCY, TIMELINESS, AND DENSITY OF KEY OBSERVATIONS 

The Need. Government agencies have developed and deployed a variety of observing networks over the past several 

decades to meet agency missions and measure drought-related parameters. Among their many uses, the data they 

provide are useful in retrospective analysis of drought. For those stations with the capacity to transmit near real-time 

observations, the data are used in forecasting activities that support drought planning, response, and mitigation efforts. 

However, many stations do not have near real-time reporting capabilities, and as such, the reporting frequency and 

timeliness for a large number of stations are not sufficient to support county-level and weekly drought monitoring and 

forecasting requirements in the 21st century. In addition, the density of some observing networks, most notably those 

that measure soil moisture, is inadequate for drought monitoring purposes. 

Limitations inherent to these existing systems include (but are not limited to): 

 Ground-water data are reported as infrequently as once every six weeks. 

 Daily precipitation and temperature data are reported only at the end of each month. 

 Reservoir water levels are made available only once per month. 

 Soil-moisture data are routinely available but from a sparse national network. 

These deficiencies interfere with our ability to fully understand or predict current or future conditions. For example, 

though the NOAA U.S. Cooperative Observer Network (COOP) collects thousands of daily temperature and 

precipitation measurements, only 15 to 20 percent of these observations are made available on a daily basis. 

Additionally, there is up to a 45-day delay in accessing these data points due primarily to the fact that these data are 

mailed to NOAA on a monthly basis and must be processed manually before being released. This delay makes it 

impractical to use these data for operational drought monitoring. Figure 2 illustrates the inaccuracies that can result 

from such a significant delay in data access. 

In creating the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor, authors rely heavily on an objective indicator that blends a number of 

critical drought indicators into a depiction consistent with the final U.S. Drought Monitor. In some areas of the United 

States, the product created using preliminary data differs greatly from the product created weeks later when all the 

COOP reports are received by NOAA. This is especially evident in Montana, where preliminary data depict a condition 

that is as much as two categories less severe than that shown using final data available months later. Conversely, the 

network of preliminary data overestimates drought severity in large areas of the mid-Atlantic and Southeast. These 

inaccurate depictions can lead to poor decisions by water resource managers. 

Similarly, observing stations capable of providing daily measurements of other critical drought parameters such as 

ground-water, snowpack, and reservoir levels are, in many cases, not adequately equipped to transmit these critical 

observations with adequate frequency and timeliness. 
Status Version Owner Date Page 

Pre-publication Secretariat 2006-0925 6 of 20 

Final layout may change. Contact the USGEO Secretariat with questions: 202-482-0655. 

Inadequacies such as these compromise the ability of drought experts to quickly and accurately analyze drought 

conditions in core programs such as the U.S. Drought Monitor. They also result in the delayed release of water resource 

information such as monthly water supply forecasts, because these products cannot be produced until sufficient 

observations are made available for analysis. 

An illustration of the importance of drought information occurs in the Columbia Basin, a classic example of a multipurpose, international and multi-state river system that is highly dependent on drought-related climate information to 

meet the growing population and energy needs of the entire West.6 The Bonneville Power Administration, which 

markets a projected $3 billion in annual revenues from both hydro and non-hydropower, is mandated by law to use the 

coordinated and final water supply forecasts issued jointly each month, January through June each year, by the Natural 

Resources Conservation Service and National Weather Service. During periods of increased climate variability, 

additional automated stations are required to initialize forecasts related to the timing and accuracy of water supply 

forecasts. This information is also used to settle United States-Canadian treaty obligations related to U.S. power benefits 

owed to Canada. 

Another example is the Klamath Basin, where the Bureau of Reclamation uses Upper Klamath Lake water-supply 

forecasts to determine lake outflows that affect fish identified by the Endangered Species Act and irrigation water rights 

for agriculture throughout the basin. Rapid changes in water supply resulting from intra-month climate variability can 

have a severe economic impact on water management if anticipated water supply data are not available. Intra-month 

climate variability's effect on water supply forecasts has heightened the need for automated climate stations to track 

climate trends in real-time. Without the full suite of drought-related climate observations, the ability of managers to 

make appropriate water resource decisions is compromised, which can adversely impact agricultural and wildlife interests 

throughout large parts of the West. These deficiencies can be corrected by applying proven communication 

technologies to improve the reporting frequency of many existing stations, thus increasing the amount of real-time 

drought information available to the public, decision-makers, and drought experts. 

Also, improved soil-moisture-sensing networks are needed and are especially important for agribusiness management. 

However, the number of stations in the soil-moisture observing network is too small to assess drought risk nationwide. 

The installation of soil-moisture sensors within the existing climatological monitoring network is required to integrate 

long-term climatology assessment with agricultural drought-risk monitoring. 

 

6 Seventy-three percent of federal firm energy resources – 6,985 average megawatts – include climate-dependent 

hydropower generated by 31 federal dams in the Columbia River Basin. 

Figure 2. Due to the current time lag in receiving data, the severity of drought can be significantly under- or overestimated for many 

areas of the Pacific Northwest, and the Southeast as illustrated in this diagram. Colors reflect the severity of drought – deep red is 

exceptional drought, red is extreme drought, orange is moderate drought, and yellow is mild drought-like conditions 
Status Version Owner Date Page 

Pre-publication Secretariat 2006-0925 7 of 20 

Final layout may change. Contact the USGEO Secretariat with questions: 202-482-0655. 

In meeting the needs of drought experts and decision-makers for timely reporting of drought-related observations, 

upgrades to existing meteorological, reservoir, ground-water, and soil-moisture-monitoring networks are recommended. 

By applying the appropriate technology to upgrade existing observing systems, the number of new systems required to 

fill gaps in spatial representation in future years will be greatly reduced. There is no single system that is best in all 

situations, so optimum solutions have been identified by network and the configurations of currently fielded systems. 

Three types of upgrades are proposed: 

 Low-cost additions of transmitting equipment to stations already fitted with automatic monitoring equipment; 

 Upgrades, consisting of automated observing and recording devices in addition to transmitting equipment, to 

those systems not already fitted with automatic monitoring equipment; and 

 Installation of new sensors for soil-moisture and soil-temperature monitoring in an existing climatological 

monitoring network. 

Major Components 

Ground Water Monitoring. The “Ground-Water Climate Response Network,” which monitors shallow ground 

water levels, was established by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with other Federal, State, and local agencies to 

support climate and drought monitoring activities. The data from this monitoring network represent an important 

component of the hydrologic data needed for NIDIS. The Network includes 140 wells selected specifically to provide 

an accurate assessment of ground-water levels in relation to climate and drought.7 For each of these wells, recent waterlevel trends can be quickly compared with long-term trends by season. These 140 wells fall into three different 

categories related to timeliness of data reporting as shown below: 

 63 wells have real-time satellite telemetry; 

 50 “Continuous” wells with continuous data-loggers require the installation of satellite telemetry; and 

 27 “Periodic” wells that measure water levels manually during periodic visits require installation of continuous 

data-loggers as well as satellite telemetry. 

Deliverables / Milestones Performance Measures 

Install satellite telemetry at 50 continuous well sites (21 

Western, 11 Central, 0 Southeast, 18 Northeast USGS 

regions) 

Percent of stations reporting within one day of 

observation 

Install satellite telemetry and continuous data loggers at 27 

periodic well sites (9 Western, 13 Central, 2 Southeast, 3 

Northeast USGS regions) 

Percent of stations reporting within one day of 

observation 

Table 1: Ground Water Monitoring Deliverables, Milestones, and Performance Measures 

Cooperative Observer Network (COOP). To improve the timeliness of COOP reporting, this recommendation 

leverages two improvements in the COOP network already underway. First, roughly 2,000 COOP stations report daily 

observations utilizing either a telephone-based (IV-ROCS) or an Internet-based (Weathercoder) data-entry system. 

These observations are generally available within one day. These two daily data-entry systems are currently prototype 

systems supported regionally, not nationally. It is critical to ensure that these data-entry systems are operationally 

supported so that 2,000+ COOP stations can continue to report daily and be incorporated into national data centers for 

daily and weekly drought products such as the U.S. Drought Monitor. 

The second improvement in the COOP network – already underway – involves NOAA’s concerted effort to replace 

antiquated and broken equipment and to modernize COOP stations, which are vital to the longevity and accuracy of the 

climate record. These improvements include replacing manual mercury-in-glass thermometers and precipitation gauges 

with digital thermistors and gauges capable of automated data collection and transmission. However, with the exception 

of the fully modernized COOP sites (NOAA Environmental Real-time Observation Network or NERON sites), most 

of the stations with updated and improved observing equipment are not fitted with an automated communications 

ability. 

 

7 Characteristics of well construction that allow reliable water-level measurements include minimal interference pumpage, irrigation, canals, and other 

potential sources of artificial recharge; long-term accessibility, and lack of susceptibility to going dry. 
Status Version Owner Date Page 

Pre-publication Secretariat 2006-0925 8 of 20 

Final layout may change. Contact the USGEO Secretariat with questions: 202-482-0655. 

A first step in improving the timeliness of data collection from COOP is to add automated communications capability to 

stations with existing capacity to automatically record observations of precipitation and/or temperature. This would 

lead to immediate improvements in the quantity of high-quality observations available for use by drought experts, and 

significantly reduce current data deficiencies that complicate drought analyses. 

 

There are 397 COOP stations within the contiguous United States that already have automatic temperature and 

precipitation data recording devices and that could easily be outfitted with telecommunications equipment to facilitate 

daily transmission of data. This telecommunications capability could be provided by a cell-phone-based system, satellitebased communications, the meteor-burst technology employed by the SNOTEL8 and SCAN9 networks, with a 

communications capability via the Law Enforcement Telecommunications System that is in use in some state observing 

networks, or a combination of these systems for future deployment of COOP Modernization, as listed in Table 2 below. 

Deliverables / Milestones Performance Measures 

Operationalize Weathercoder and IV-ROCS Increase in the percent of stations reporting nationally 

within one day of observation 

Install telecommunications equipment at 397 

automated COOP sites 

Increase in the percent of stations reporting nationally 

within one day of observation 

Table 2: Cooperative Observer Network Deliverables, Milestones, and Performance Measures 

Reservoirs. Reservoirs play an important role in managing water for a variety of purposes, including municipal water 

supplies, agricultural irrigation, power generation, endangered species management, and navigation. There are more than 

70,000 registered dams in the United States (National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting, 2005). Their role in 

drought mitigation varies across the nation. 

A number of Western reservoirs are designed to store water for periods beyond a specific water year, thus providing a 

measure of security in the event of a multiyear drought. Rapid population growth in the most arid regions of the West is 

taxing reservoirs beyond their initial designs – made in the middle of the last century. Changes in climate variability also 

challenge reservoir-management strategies developed during the last century. 

Real-time monitoring of reservoir storage is more critical today than ever. The Natural Resource Conservation Service 

collects monthly data from 251 Western reservoirs, and the state of California collects data from 151 reservoirs. Of the 

400+ Western reservoirs, approximately 200 are read manually each month. Automating the transmission of reservoir 

storage information would optimize reservoir management strategies and allow development of new drought-specific 

applications for water managers. Automating Midwest and Eastern reservoirs for real-time monitoring of reservoir 

storage is also important and will be addressed in future phases of NIDIS. 

Deliverables / Milestones Performance Measures 

Install telecommunications equipment at 200 

Western reservoirs (20 reservoirs/year) 

Increase in the percent of stations reporting nationally within 

one day of observation 

Table 3: Reservoir Deliverables, Milestones, and Performance Measures 

Soil Moisture. While significant improvements in data availability and access to parameters such as temperature, 

precipitation, ground-water, and reservoir levels can be realized by enhancing the automatic reporting capacity of 

stations in these networks, the same is not true for soil moisture. The measurement of soil moisture is one of the most 

critical parameters for understanding the state of drought throughout the country. However, there is only one small 

national network of stations currently measuring soil moisture. The Soil Climate Analysis Network (SCAN) consists of 

111 stations throughout 38 states, providing automatic reporting of daily observations via meteor-burst technology. 

Although all sites provide automatic reports of observations on a daily basis, the total number of sites is not sufficient 

for understanding soil-moisture conditions on a widespread basis. 

 

8 SNOTEL (for SNOwpack TELemetry) is operated by the USDA to collect snowpack and related climatic data in the Western United States. There 

are approximately 730 SNOTEL sites in 11 western states including Alaska. 9 The Soil Climate Analysis network (SCAN) is operated by the USDA to monitor and record soil moisture and soil temperatures at approximately 110 

stations across the United States focusing on the nation’s agricultural regions. 
Status Version Owner Date Page 

Pre-publication Secretariat 2006-0925 9 of 20 

Final layout may change. Contact the USGEO Secretariat with questions: 202-482-0655. 

In addition to supporting drought monitoring, preparedness, and response, observations of soil moisture are required in 

climate forecasting and modeling as well as reservoir management, irrigation scheduling, and crop-yield forecasting. The 

current network of point-based measurements is not sufficient for revealing large-scale soil-moisture patterns. Other 

options such as the use of satellite radiance data to infer soil moisture, while providing large-scale coverage, measures the 

skin surface conditions and is sensitive to many characteristics of surface soils and vegetation canopies. These 

parameters are difficult to estimate without extensive ground measurements that would allow calibration and validation 

of the satellite measurements. 

The current soil-moisture network is an order of magnitude too small for adequately monitoring and forecasting soilmoisture conditions. As an initial start in the development of a suitable soil-monitoring network, we recommend 

leveraging NOAA’s 114 existing and planned Climate Reference Network (CRN) sites in the United States (Figure 3). 

The addition of soil-moisture and soil-temperature sensors to this existing network effectively doubles the current 

number of soil-monitoring stations in the national network. It will provide soil-moisture measurements in all states not 

supported by the existing network of SCAN sites, while adding additional soil-moisture-measuring capacity in 70 

locations in the Central and Western United States, areas of the country particularly vulnerable to drought. 

In-situ soil-moisture measurements, as well as the ground-water well measurements discussed previously, are critical 

aspects of the nation’s drought-monitoring capacity. They measure unique features not measurable from satellite-based 

sensors. Even if satellites are used, they still require robust in situ networks for calibration and validation. In addition, 

while satellite-based sensors measure soil moisture in the top inch or so of the surface (and, along with modeling efforts, 

can be extremely useful in providing higher spatial resolution of some important drought-related quantities), in situ soilmoisture sensors measure moisture at deeper levels, from the surface to below crop root zones (usually about 2 meters). 

These measurements are used to indicate moisture available for crops; and for operating computer models for 

forecasting stream flow, water supply, floods and weather, and for managing crop irrigation. Well-level measurements 

provide the level of the ground-water at depths typically well below crop root zones. These measurements are used to 

indicate water available at depths that can range from very deep to relatively shallow for irrigation and municipal and 

industrial water. 

Figure 3. Locations of Climate Reference Network
Status Version Owner Date Page 

Pre-publication Secretariat 2006-0925 10 of 20 

Final layout may change. Contact the USGEO Secretariat with questions: 202-482-0655. 

Several factors support the selection of the CRN as the network of choice for enhancing soil-moisture-measurement 

capacity throughout the United States. 

 The CRN network is well-established and designed to provide the highest quality long-term record of climate 

conditions coupled with real-time access to current conditions, while being specifically engineered for easy 

augmentation with new sensors. 

 The existing infrastructure is well-suited to supporting the addition of extremely precise, highly calibrated soilmoisture and soil-temperature sensors at a reasonable cost. 

 The CRN maintenance program, which was designed to ensure the continued accuracy and reliability of every 

CRN station, will guarantee the continued integrity of soil-moisture and soil-temperature measurements 

throughout the network’s 50- to 100-year lifetime. 

Deliverables / Milestones Performance Measures 

Install soil-moisture and soil-temperature sensors at 

114 CRN sites 

Number of soil-moisture measurement stations reporting 

nationally in real-time 

Table 4: Soil Moisture Deliverables, Milestones, and Performance Measures 

3.2 U.S. DROUGHT PORTAL 

Internet access to a “drought early warning and forecast system” capable of providing accurate, timely, and integrated 

information describing drought conditions on a county, regional, and national scale is the cornerstone and most visible 

element of NIDIS. An Internet portal for drought information will provide relevant spatial and temporal drought-risk 

information to three distinct user communities: 1) the general public who need to know the status of drought and what 

actions to take if the drought worsens where they live and work; 2) decision-makers and businesses at state and county 

levels that need to plan for and mitigate drought; and 3) drought experts and scientists tasked with developing more 

refined decision-support systems. 

The U.S. Drought Portal (USDP) will provide user communities with a critical link to information, products, and service 

providers, and will support the USGEO concept “to provide seamless, timely access to integrated Earth observations 

data, information, and products within the next decade” as shown in Figure 4. The interagency nature of the USDP 

necessitates common data and metadata standards to assure optimal interoperability. To this end, the USGEO linkage 

to Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) for both governance and operational guidelines will need to be fully leveraged 

by the USDP. 

While the USGEO concept is necessary for the success of the USDP, it is not sufficient. As shown in Figure 4, the 

USDP rests upon a foundation of mature data management systems and standards, which are also needed to ensure 

efficient data collection, analysis and formatting for incoming and outgoing data to and from the USDP. While the 

responsibility for metadata and quality control ultimately resides with the individual data providers, standards and 

extensions in the context of open systems will assure interoperability without sacrificing creativity. 
Status Version Owner Date Page 

Pre-publication Secretariat 2006-0925 11 of 20 

Final layout may change. Contact the USGEO Secretariat with questions: 202-482-0655. 

The U.S. Drought Portal will be an authoritative source for drought data, information, and tools among those who use it 

and for those who contribute data and products. Products retrieved from this drought portal can be used for 

agricultural risk assessments, water-resource management, environmental risk assessments, efficient energy management 

and many other decision-making purposes that prepare the Nation for drought. 

Given these goals, the USDP will: 

 Provide user-friendly Internet navigation from national to county levels; 

 Be populated with historical and real-time drought data and products from a variety of partners; and 

 Support easy-to-understand interpretations of relevant drought products, similar to the way an individual can 

obtain information on a particular stock from a variety of financial web pages. 

Examples of products to be included in the USDP are the following: 

 Observed data. Observed elements at multiple time and spatial scales as both station and gridded datasets: 

precipitation, snowpack, streamflow, reservoir levels, ground water, crop moisture, soil moisture, temperature, 

anomalies, and drought impacts; 

 Derived products and indexes. U.S. Drought Monitor, Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI), Standardized 

Precipitation Index (SPI), Objective Blends, Surface Water Supply Index (SWSI), Vegetation Drought 

Response Index (VegDRI), and the Keetch-Bryam fire index; 

 Forecast products. Water supply, streamflow, climate, snowpack, and U.S. Drought Outlook; and 

 Educational products. Information that educates the user on what data are used to construct specific 

products, indices, and forecasts, as well as reasons for uncertainty in the observations. It also will provide 

examples of which products should be used to make specific decisions. 

Examples of core web sites whose data and applications would be aggregated and made available via the USDP include: 

 National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC): This site hosts the Drought Monitor and The Drought Impact 

Reporter. NDMC helps people and institutions develop and implement measures to reduce societal vulnerability 

to drought. http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/index.html and http://droughtreporter.unl.edu/

 Applied Climate Information System (ACIS): ACIS is supported by the National Climatic Data Center 

(NCDC) and operated by the six Regional Climate Centers. ACIS provides both real-time and historical 

climate data from a variety of networks. ACIS also allows execution of user-adjustable programs to support 

Figure 4. The U.S. Drought Portal and its relationship to the flow of data and information.

U.S. Drought Portal (USDP)
Status Version Owner Date Page 

Pre-publication Secretariat 2006-0925 12 of 20 

Final layout may change. Contact the USGEO Secretariat with questions: 202-482-0655. 

drought risk analysis. 

http://rcc-acis.org/ 

 National Water Information System (NWIS): NWIS is operated by the USGS and provides both real-time 

and historical surface streamflow, reservoir, and groundwater information. 

http://water.usgs.gov/waterwatch/

 Joint Agricultural Weather Facility (JAWF): This joint USDA/Department of Commerce operation 

provides production agriculture predictions for the United States and the world. 

http://www.usda.gov/oce/waob/jawf/

 National Climatic Data Center (NCDC): NCDC is the national archive for climate data and products. 

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/ncdc.html

 Climate Prediction Center (CPC): CPC provides a variety of climate analysis and prediction products. 

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/

 National Water and Climate Center (NWCC): NWCC provides access to Western water supply forecasts 

along with SNOTEL and SCAN data. 

http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/

 National Weather Service – Hydrology: The River Forecast Centers provide streamflow forecasts for the 

United States. 

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/oh/index.html

The USDP also will: 1) support the ability to graph relevant data and products spatially and temporally, and interactively 

compose maps; 2) allow users to arrange and save selected products for a specific geographic area for easy return visits; 

and 3) support links to specific decision support systems. 

The USDP is dependent on leveraging activities with the USGEO Archive Data Management (ADM) Working Group 

to develop consistency across near-term opportunity portals.

Deliverables / Milestones Performance Measures 

Establish, operate, and update U.S. Drought Portal 

Number of user accesses 

Number of products available 

Number of seamless links to drought cooperators 

User feedback 

Applied Climate Information System (ACIS)-IDP 

Integration 

Number of climate stations in ACIS 

Number of climate products related to drought 

Capability for gridded climate product generation 

National Water Information System (NWIS)-IDP 

Integration Number of streamflow and ground-water stations in NWIS 

Integrate climate forecasts with IDP Products Specific product integration to meet user needs 

Integrate remotely sensed data with in situ data Data in areas not covered by terrestrial network 

Table 5: U.S. Drought Portal Deliverables / Milestones and Performance Measures 

3.3 NIDIS OPERATIONS OFFICE

To coordinate the NIDIS business functions and activities there must be a comprehensive management strategy and 

personnel dedicated to meeting the goals of the NIDIS plan. A NIDIS Operations Office was created on August 1, 

2006 and is directed by personnel from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It will help 

deliver the NIDIS contribution to the IEOS vision in a timely and cost-effective way. Deliverables for this office 

include the near-term goals discussed above as well as the infrastructure required to complete the NIDIS business plan. 

In addition, the NIDIS operations office provides guidance, ensures appropriate linkages, and in many cases, performs 

critical preparatory groundwork enabling goals to be achieved. Specific responsibilities include: 

 Monitoring network performance; 

 Ongoing analysis and recommendations to optimize observing-system maintenance, communications, 

integrated data flow and configuration (e.g., spatial density, frequency, and timeliness of measurements); 
Status Version Owner Date Page 

Pre-publication Secretariat 2006-0925 13 of 20 

Final layout may change. Contact the USGEO Secretariat with questions: 202-482-0655. 

 Facilitating cooperative agreements with both Federal and non-Federal partners for NIDIS implementation, 

including possible cost-sharing and implementation activities; 

 Coordinating drought educational outreach; 

 Tracking NIDIS progress; 

 Administering external contracts to address NIDIS goals including the development, improvement, and 

maintenance of the U.S. Drought Portal; 

 Enabling communication among expert teams to address the major goals of the WGA’s NIDIS document with 

participation across agencies and partners; and 

 Outreach to user communities to improve NIDIS and update requirements. 

NIDIS Partnerships. The operations office will work with USGEO agencies to help assess the state of existing 

networks, determine the optimal spatial density to guide the number and location of new stations, and help determine 

what type of observing systems are scientifically and economically feasible. This includes: 

 Identifying and documenting what is required to successfully meet the requirements of NIDIS; 

 Identifying and documenting activities, new data, and products that can contribute to NIDIS; 

 Working to implement and track the progress of NIDIS; 

 Assisting as appropriate in the development of agreements and activities to further enhance NIDIS; 

 Communicating actions and status to the USGEO agencies; and 

 Reviewing and updating documents and plans for currency and relevance to NIDIS. 

The operations office will accomplish goals through joint efforts across Federal, state, and local agencies, Native 

American tribes and appropriate non-governmental partners. Non-Federal partners may include the Earth System 

Information Partners, the American Association of State Climatologists, regional climate centers, and the Alliance for 

Earth Observations. For the purpose of this document as related to this short-term implementation plan, the major 

federal agencies included in this effort are the Department of Interior (DOI), the U.S. Department of Agriculture 

(USDA), NOAA, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). There is significant leveraging of 

existing data systems and products produced by these operating agencies as described directly below. 

Early Opportunities. Leveraging the following programs and observing systems, dependent on observing, data 

management and analysis systems infrastructure already in place, will help anticipate and mitigate drought severity across 

the United States: 

 USGS National Streamflow Information Program; 

 USGS Ground-Water Climate Response Network; 

 USDA Snow Survey Program (710 SNOTEL stations); 

 USDA Soil Climate Analysis Network (111 stations); 

 NOAA Climate Reference Network (114 stations), Cooperative Legacy Sites (8,000 stations), Cooperative 

Modernization Program, and Automated Surface Observing System; 

 NOAA Operational and Hydrological Research and Services 

 NOAA National Climatic Data Center and National Climate Prediction Center Drought Monitoring Teams; 

 NOAA Regional Climate Centers; 

 FAA Automated Weather Observing System; and 

 NASA Applied Sciences Program 
Status Version Owner Date Page 

Pre-publication Secretariat 2006-0925 14 of 20 

Final layout may change. Contact the USGEO Secretariat with questions: 202-482-0655. 

3.4 SUMMARY 

The following is a summary Table of all near-term NIDIS Deliverables, Milestones, and Performance Measures that 

have been described previously in this implementation plan. 

Deliverables / Milestones Performance Measures 

Install satellite telemetry at 50 continuous well sites (21 

Western, 11 Central, 0 Southeast, 18 Northeast USGS 

regions) 

Percent of stations reporting within one day of 

observation 

Install satellite telemetry at 27 periodic well sites (9 

Western, 13 Central, 2 Southeast, 3 Northeast USGS 

regions) 

Percent of stations reporting within one day of 

observation 

Install telecommunications equipment at 397 automated 

COOP sites, and operationalize Weathercoder and IVROCS 

Increase in the percent of stations reporting within one 

day of observation 

Install telecommunications equipment at 200 western 

reservoirs, 20 reservoirs/year. 

Increase in the percent of stations reporting within one 

day of observation 

Install soil-moisture and soil-temperature sensors at 114 

CRN sites 

Number of soil-moisture-measurement stations reporting 

in real time 

Establish, operate, and update Drought Portal Number of user accesses 

Number of products available 

Number of seamless links to drought cooperators 

User feedback 

Applied Climate Information System (ACIS)-IDP 

Integration 

Number of climate stations in ACIS 

Number of climate products related to drought 

National Water Information System (NWIS)-IDP 

Integration 

Number of streamflow and ground-water stations in 

NWIS 

Integrate climate forecasts with IDP Products Specific product integration to meet user needs 

Integrate remotely-sensed data with in situ data Data in areas not covered by terrestrial network 

Coordinate NIDIS operations Number of NIDIS goals and objectives achieved 

Table 7: Summary of Deliverables, Milestones, and Performance Measures 

The success of delivery on these near-term opportunities, milestones, and deliverables will provide the foundation for 

further advances through the entire process that will ultimately deliver a comprehensive and fully integrated drought 

information system for the nation. USGEO will conduct long-term planning with this goal in mind that combines the 

immediate objectives with follow-up activities in the 5 to 10-year timeframe. The mid- and long-term plans include 

further development of observing networks, which will ultimately comprise a Benchmark Drought Monitoring Network; 

development of a next-generation drought-monitoring system; and research supporting drought risk assessment and 

management. These efforts will enable full implementation of the NIDIS Business Process Requirements shown in 

Figure 1 and described in Appendix A. 

4. ELEMENTS OF A COMPREHENSIVE NIDIS BUSINESS PLAN 

4.1 BENCHMARK DROUGHT MONITORING NETWORK

As previously discussed, a major focus of the early opportunities is increasing the transmission and reporting capabilities 

of existing networks to improve timeliness and frequency of data availability. But to fully achieve a monitoring system 

that will provide the quality and quantity of information required for drought monitoring and forecasting in the coming 

decades, a Benchmark Drought Monitoring Network (BDMN) is required. It has long been known that, in addition to 

the inadequate distribution of soil-moisture-monitoring sites, the quantity of data collection for other variables including 

precipitation, ground-water levels, and snow pack are insufficient in many parts of the United States. Determining the 

most appropriate locations for new stations requires careful study and research, based the analysis of a combination of 

current station density, susceptibility to drought, and ecological and societal risk caused by drought in those areas. To 

capture the intensity and spatial variability of drought will also require observed simulation experiments. This essential 

preparatory study will be accomplished in the near-term through the leadership of the NIDIS Operations Office and will 

set the stage for deployment of surface observing systems in the succeeding years that will fulfill the goal of establishing 

a fully integrated Benchmark Drought Monitoring Network. 
Status Version Owner Date Page 

Pre-publication Secretariat 2006-0925 15 of 20 

Final layout may change. Contact the USGEO Secretariat with questions: 202-482-0655. 

4.2 MODEL ANALYSIS

While today’s drought monitoring is partly based on subjective, regional-scale depictions of national drought conditions 

based on a combination of drought indicators and supplementary field reports, there is a growing recognition of the 

need for a next-generation drought-monitoring system that more fully exploits the rich information content of 

observational data through reanalysis. We envision a system that will query new, more accurate atmospheric and landsurface climate model reanalysis and provide interactive drought-monitoring tools. These tools will allow individual 

users (e.g., agricultural, fire danger, water supply) to answer their own specific drought questions for their chosen regions 

and times. In addition to improving the dissemination of user-specific drought information, such a system will improve 

drought nowcasting and forecasting and provide a new tool for understanding how and why droughts occur. 

At the heart of this envisioned drought system is an improved model reanalysis of the climate system as called for in the 

Strategic Plan for the Climate Change Science Program 2003.

10 Datasets have emerged as critical to the advancement of our 

understanding of how and why the climate has varied during the last half century. They are produced using a fixed data 

assimilation/forecast system that synthesizes quality-controlled data from disparate observational systems together with 

a state-of-the-art model forecast. Using this approach, major climate modeling groups have produced long time series of 

comprehensive, high-quality global and regional climate analyses. For drought monitoring, the NOAA and NASA coled Land Data Assimilation System (LDAS)/North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) is producing 

retrospective reanalyses and near real-time estimates of the land-surface state and surface-energy budgets. Since soil 

moisture is difficult to observe directly, dynamic land-surface models use atmospheric data, including observed 

precipitation and short-wave radiation, to derive the soil-moisture state. Current-generation LDAS models still have 

errors, so LDAS is also actively involved in research on how to reduce the errors in the calculation of soil moisture and 

energy reservoirs, in particular through the use of data assimilation techniques. 

Implementation of a comprehensive model-based analysis strategy for providing drought information in support of 

NIDIS is likely to be a multi step process. Existing regional reanalysis datasets will need to be examined to determine 

whether there is useful information for drought attribution and diagnostics. In addition, work is needed to develop an 

interactive drought-monitoring tool that is flexible enough to process any future pertinent reanalysis data. Feedback 

from early adopters can guide NIDIS in future drought-tool development. 

Through a range of efforts, it is possible to improve and extend the land-surface reanalysis datasets, while diagnostic 

evaluation of these datasets can guide more advanced model development. The existing patchwork of separate landsurface, ocean, and atmospheric reanalysis products would be made more efficient through an integrated, dynamically 

consistent reanalysis product. This integration requires basic research, but could ultimately lead to development of a 

long-term, physically consistent reanalysis dataset encompassing the land, ocean, and atmosphere. A primary benefit of 

this product is improved, consistent analyses of the near-surface and land-surface state that are needed to improve 

drought diagnosis, analysis, and attribution. 

5. BEYOND THE NEAR-TERM: RESEARCH SUPPORTING DROUGHT RISK 

ASSESSMENT AND DROUGHT RISK MANAGEMENT 

NIDIS users will benefit from early warning subsystems: monitoring and forecasting, risk assessment, preparedness, 

communication and public awareness, evaluation, and feedback. Enhanced understanding leading to improved 

predictions of drought (onset, termination, duration, and severity) requires research to improve both monitoring and 

analysis systems, and representation of the water cycle in earth system models (climate, water, vegetation). Improved 

understanding of the mechanisms and predictability of decadal drought also requires research on leading sources of 

potential skill, such as the impacts of sea surface temperature (SST) variability, deep soil moisture/ground-water 

variability, and global change trends. Improved assessments of societal, economic, and environmental vulnerability and 

their impacts and response capacity to drought can help provide more reliable risk-reduction efforts. Research to 

develop objective quantification of drought and associated economic impacts can improve the accuracy of the 

quantitative calculations of the monetary benefits of improved drought prediction and mitigation. In addition, research 

focused on how drought predictions with limited skill can be used to improve operational decision-making for water 

supply, transportation, hydropower, and irrigation will increase the number of products and services available for use in 

public and private sector planning and policymaking. 

 

10 http://www.climatescience.gov/Library/stratplan2003/final/default.htm 
Status Version Owner Date Page 

Pre-publication Secretariat 2006-0925 16 of 20 

Final layout may change. Contact the USGEO Secretariat with questions: 202-482-0655. 

APPENDIX A: NIDIS FUNCTIONAL BUSINESS MODEL 

In 2004, the Western Governors’ Association (WGA) developed a set of requirements, through a broad-based team of 

Federal and non-Federal partners, for a National Integrated Drought Information System. These requirements were 

developed in conjunction with the National Drought Policy Commission’s report to Congress and the pending National 

Drought Preparedness Act before Congress. This Near-Term Opportunity Plan was developed in response to the WGA 

report, Creating a Drought Early Warning System for the 21st Century – The National Integrated Drought Information System 

(NIDIS),11 which described NIDIS and the following intended goals: 

 Develop the leadership and partnerships to ensure successful implementation of an integrated national drought 

monitoring and forecasting system; 

 Foster and support a research environment that focuses on impact mitigation and improved predictive 

capabilities; 

 Create a drought “early warning system” capable of providing accurate, timely, and integrated information on 

drought conditions at the relevant spatial scale to facilitate proactive decisions aimed at minimizing the 

economic, social, and ecosystem losses associated with drought; 

 Provide interactive delivery systems, including an Internet portal, of easily comprehensible and standardized 

products (databases, forecasts, GIS-based products, maps, etc.); and 

 Provide a framework for interacting with and educating those affected by drought on how and why droughts 

occur, and how they impact human and natural systems. 

These goals have been translated into a Business Plan which includes: 

Physical Science and Socioeconomic Research. This process includes research in the physical sciences 

necessary to establish appropriate scientific techniques used in other processes and to provide guidance on such things 

as what to observe and what to analyze as well as where observing coverage is sufficient or deficient. Other essential 

elements of research include determining the optimum frequency at which observations should be recorded and 

reported. 

Observe. This process involves observing physical and socioeconomic parameters, and includes the archiving, 

maintaining and accessing the observed parameters. The process uses information guided by and techniques developed 

for the Physical Science and Socioeconomic Research process. 

Monitor and Predict. This process includes monitoring observations for relevant changes in state as well as 

prediction of future states. The process uses information from the Observe process and is guided by and uses 

techniques from the Physical Science and Socioeconomic Research process. 

Analyze. This process analyzes the raw predictions and changes of state from the Monitor and Observe process to 

produce useful information. The process is guided by and uses techniques from the Physical Science and 

Socioeconomic Research process. 

Inform. This process provides useful information from the Research, Observe, Monitor, and Predict processes and 

makes it available for use by interested parties. The process is heavily focused on data-management-related activities. 

Make Decisions and Take Action. This process involves making drought-mitigating decisions and taking action 

based on those decisions. It uses information provided in the Inform process as well as plans prepared in the Plan 

process and takes advantage of education of the process users in the Educate process. The process includes decisionsupport tools that result from the Risk Reduction Research and Physical Science and Socioeconomic Research processes. 

Risk Reduction Research. This process includes research into how to mitigate the effects of drought. It is 

somewhat related to socioeconomic research, but is drawn separately for the sake of simplifying this diagram. Later 

iterations of the diagram may better reflect the relationship. 

 

11 http://www/westgov.org/wga/publicat/NIDIS.pdf
Status Version Owner Date Page 

Pre-publication Secretariat 2006-0925 17 of 20 

Final layout may change. Contact the USGEO Secretariat with questions: 202-482-0655. 

Educate. This process involves educating affected parties on issue associated with drought and drought mitigation. 

The process uses the results of the Risk Reduction research process. 

Plan. This process involves making plans for mitigating drought that can be implemented based on information 

provided in the Inform process and by triggers provided by the decision-support tools in the Make Decisions and Take 

Action process. 

NIDIS Operations. This process is end-to-end. It helps ensure that NIDIS leverages and optimizes existing cross 

agency, state, local and private sector observations and information delivery. It provides day-to-day monitoring of the 

flow of data, information, and products among agencies throughout the entire process. 

Physical Science & 

Socioeconomic 

Research

Observe

Monitor and 

Predict

Analyze

Inform

Risk 

Reduction 

Research

Make 

Decisions & 

Take Action

Plan

Educate

NIDIS Operations

NIDIS NTO Planned Functions

A Report of the National Science and Technology Council 

September 2006