Improving drought management in the West: the role of mitigation and preparedness

The purpose of this report to the Commission is to provide an overview and analysis of drought and drought management issues in the West and to propose recommendations for improving the coping capacity of the region. The report is divided into five sections. First, the concept of drought will be discussed to provide the reader with a greater awareness and understanding of this complex and insidious natural hazard. Second, the climatology of drought in the Nation and the region will be reviewed, particularly for the period since 1986. This will help place the recent series of dry years in a historical context. Third, the status of State drought planning efforts will be reviewed, particularly in terms of the progress that has been made in the past decade. Fourth, the mitigative actions employed by States in response to recent drought will be analyzed to demonstrate the wide range of options now available to address drought-related problems. Fifth, the results and recommendations of several recent studies will be reviewed and synthesized to determine the necessary next steps toward a more integrated approach (i.e., between levels of government) to drought and water management in the West and the Nation.