Evolving Regional Climate Services Across the U.S.: Supporting Decisions Before, During and After the 2019 Extreme Flood and Precipitation Event in Agriculture and Hydrology

Abstract:

There is growing awareness across all levels of government, business and the general public of risks from a varying and changing climate. Several rounds of U.S. National Climate Assessments have renewed the urgency to reduce the associated risks especially those arising from extremes. Others call for the building of awareness of impacts through regional and local interaction with climate service information providers and/or early warning systems. More than useful or even usable information is needed, what is required are pathways to improved decisions that thread through disaster risk reduction, adaptation, sustainability. Successful information systems have multiple subsystems supported by research in integrated risk assessment, user engagement, communication, and decision support of which early warning is a component and output. This presentation is designed to articulate a regional climate services example for the 2019 extreme precipitation event and how they enabled users to build such information into their decisions for resilience. The hydrologic aspects of this are well known. But the agronomic impacts were even more pronounced and widespread across wide areas in the Midwest and Northern Great Plains. These issues included delayed planting, compacted soils, yield loss and economic losses from increased management.