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This consensus study committee will consider approaches to understanding and assessing drought in the United States. This review will encompass data sources, metrics, and indicators for characterizing drought in the context of changing drought baselines and trends. The committee will recommend a framework for incorporating non-stationarity considerations into drought assessment in a changing climate, for use across a range of geographic regions and of spatial and temporal scales and to inform decision-making for short-term risk management and long-term adaptation.
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U.S. Needs New Drought Assessment Framework as Droughts Become More Severe and Unpredictable
News Release
As droughts in the United States become more frequent and longer-lasting, new assessment tools are needed. A new National Academies report examines how the field of drought assessment can better account for shifting drought conditions and proposes a framework to support drought monitoring, planning, and decision-making to meet future challenges.
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Improving Future U.S. Drought Assessment
Consensus Study Report
·2026
Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, the U.S. Southwest has been weathering the nation's first multidecadal megadrought, the most severe of many such droughts over the past 1,200 years. Droughts are becoming more frequent and longer-lasting, occurring against a backdrop of long-term regi...
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