The National Drought Mitigation Center: Building on 25 Years of Service

Abstract:

The year 2020 marks the celebration of the National Drought Mitigation Center’s (NDMC) (http://drought.unl.edu) 25 years of service to the global drought risk management community. Over the past two and a half decades we have been working with dozens of partners and nearly 100 countries with a goal of developing tools, products, services and outreach centered around drought monitoring and early warning, risk and vulnerability assessment and mitigation, policy and planning.

The NDMC’s mission is to work to reduce societal vulnerability to drought by helping people at all levels following the proactive principles of drought risk management, which revolves around drought early warning, risk and vulnerability assessment and mitigation, policy and planning. Most of this work integrates a participatory approach aimed at working with stakeholders and our partners to help address the questions they need answered. Our work has been focused on the individual up to the national level and all points in between. This presentation will provide an update on where the NDMC has been and where we are going in regards to collaboratively building, enhancing and providing operational data, products and tools as well as cultivating our traditional research, communication, educational and outreach activities both in the United States and abroad.