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Monitoring, mitigation and triggers — Economic, socioeconomic, environmental, SWST <br />Risk Assessment— Assessment of impacts and vulnerability, database for integrating local mitigation <br />and response actions, drought risks information system, climate change vulnerability. " <br />A data platform for drought planning and mitigation should be based upon the gathering <br />of high quality information related to a variety of physical, environmental and human <br />conditions. The gathering and integration of data into a data platform will make more <br />efficient use of existing data as well as filling gaps in local, state, and federal networks. <br />Weather and climate observations have limited value for drought mitigation and <br />response planning if they cannot become part of a larger drought risk montage. A <br />variety of state and federally supported data networks currently exist throughout <br />Colorado, including hydroclimatic observations, the USGS streamflow network, and the <br />NRCS SNOTEL (SNOw TELemetry) network which utilizes meteor -burst technology to <br />provide a reliable and cost - effective real -time data transmission method that overcomes <br />the problem of data transmissions being blocked by mountains. Innovative partnerships <br />continue to establish alliances to extend climate data over existing data networks. <br />The necessary physical information will include observations of precipitation, soil <br />moisture, snow water content and snow depth, soil and air temperatures, humidity, wind <br />speed and direction, and solar radiation. Because drought revolves around the supply <br />of and the demand for water, integration of data on stream flow, lake and reservoir <br />levels, and ground water status will likely be a key element of the data platform. <br />The AMEC team will work with CWCB, our colleagues at NIDIS, and others working on <br />elements of the data platform that include drought risk assessment, monitoring, and <br />triggers, to identify key data and an appropriate technology with which to develop a <br />drought data platform to collect and synthesize information on drought and drought <br />impacts, and ultimately support planning and future drought mitigation and response <br />decision making. AMEC will coordinate with NIDIS /CSU researchers that will be <br />concurrently working on drought monitoring and trigger mechanism improvements, <br />including both physical /hydrological data (such as a national surface observing <br />network), and socio- economic and environmental impacts data (such as agriculture <br />losses and wildfire impacts). Secondly, AMEC will recommend an approach to integrate <br />and interpret that data with easily accessible, and where possible, existing tools, to <br />provide timely and useful information to decision - makers and the general public. The <br />development of a fully operational platform is beyond the scope of this project, thus the <br />AMEC team will focus on identifying fundamental drought planning and mitigation data <br />needs, the general availability of this data, and where these data are already being <br />made available using web -based tools and technologies. Thus a key goal will be to <br />coordinate with partners at NIDIS, NDMC, CSU, Utah State University, and NRCS to <br />ensure we include functional descriptions of existing and emerging technologies, <br />projects, and initiatives that could contribute to drought planning in Colorado, and that <br />CWCB should therefore be aware of. <br />amecO 5 <br />