FACT: DROUGHT DECISION-SUPPORT PLATFORM (DDESUP): DERIVING PHYSICAL DROUGHT METRICS FROM EARTH OBSERVATIONS FOR INTEGRATION INTO RANCH MANAGEMENT AND ECONOMIC MODELS

In the United States, droughts have increased in frequency and severity over the past half-century, and agricultural production systems in the semi-arid American West are particularly vulnerable to drought. This proposal addresses three key knowledge gaps that limit land managers' ability to prepare for and adapt to drought: 1) Are existing biophysical drought variables and metrics directly meaningful and/or useful to stakeholders in dryland systems?; 2) How do stakeholders view 'drought', and do those align with biophysical drought variables and metrics that are being produced?; and 3) Based on the answers to the above two questions, how could drought information systems be improved to address current shortcomings in dryland systems to meet land manager needs? We have assembled a transdisciplinary team of scientists and stakeholders focused around a pilot case study in the High Divide region of Idaho and Montana, where our stakeholder partners have expressed the need for more locally specific drought information to help guide important land management and policy decisions. This project will increase the impact of drought monitoring products and improve options for drought adaptation by integrating multiple geospatial data products with land manager input and economic models to make public data products and decision-support tools that are useful for decision-making at both ranch-level and regional scales. Our case study area is representative of issues confronting agricultural communities throughout the western US, and will inform the submission of a standard AFRI grant targeted on a larger region in FY 2021.