The Hawaiʻi Drought Knowledge Exchange: co-producing site-specific climate and drought portfolios with resource managers

Abstract:

Climate change, climate variability, and drought (CCVD) will exert a growing impact on Hawaiʻi’s landscapes, watersheds, and nearshore areas. Recent severe El Niño-related drought events and long-term drying trends have negatively affected multiple sectors across the state. While land managers are tasked with utilizing the “best available science”, they often are confronted with data products that are difficult to access and there is no centralized, drought-focused information clearinghouse or facilitated communication process with researchers to meet the needs of resource managers. To address this gap, the Pacific Islands Climate Adaptation Science Center funded the establishment of the Hawai‘i Drought Knowledge Exchange (HDKE) to explore knowledge co-production among researchers and resource managers with the goal of expanding the utility of drought-related information for end users. The pilot phase of the HDKE has involved sustained collaboration with three partners to co-produce novel and site-specific CCVD portfolios that include historic syntheses of mean climate, climate variability and trends, and a host of drought-related metrics and analyses. Particular attention is paid to how El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phases influence both rainfall patterns and drought at each location. The portfolios also make future downscaled projections accessible for mid- and late-century rainfall and temperature. Most of the figures and information contained in these portfolios are generated with a semi-automated process that will allow us to scale up this pilot to include additional stakeholders in the future. The collaborations with the project partners on the CCVD portfolios demonstrate how including managers in the research process can result in timely and relevant drought-related tools (or produce more relevant drought-related information) that can be used for management planning on different timescales.