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In order to assess the overall vulnerability of communities in Colorado, AMEC will <br />survey various organizations and data sources including business associations, <br />agricultural extension agents, the census, and employment figures. Employment <br />diversity, which we will assess across all sectors, is strongly related to economic <br />resiliency and the ability of an economy to adapt to changes in conditions. This indicator <br />is applicable locally, as well as regionally, because it is measured at the county level. <br />Drought can have a major influence on local economic resiliency, which makes this <br />indicator useful in assessing community well being over the longer term. <br />Using census data and regional business reporters and representatives AMEC will <br />select (in coordination with CWCB) and sample 2 rural and 2 urban communities to <br />establish if there was a decline in the rate of their economic growth during 2002. We will <br />attempt to establish if there were any fluctuations in household food prices during this <br />period, reduced earnings from tourism, increased unemployment levels or energy <br />shortages. In conducting our vulnerability assessment of state assets we will use the <br />surveys to determine if the state has suffered any loss of biodiversity as a result of <br />drought, and whether state agencies experienced increased risk of conflict over use and <br />governance of resources. Reports of socioeconomic impacts will be analyzed for <br />Colorado's counties from the Drought Impact Reporter database and past drought <br />events, with an emphasis on the 2002 event. As it is difficult to quantify socioeconomic <br />impacts this will be a qualitative discussion. <br />3.3.1 (d) Development of mechanism to integrate and track key information in local drought <br />plans and drought related information in local water supply master plans into existing CWCB <br />databases to allow better integration of local planning into future sate drought plan updates. <br />Because drought impacts are inherently hard to quantify, there has not been a <br />comprehensive and consistent methodology for quantifying drought impacts and <br />economic losses in the state. AMEC understands that CWCB would like to continue to <br />incorporate new drought and climate change data and information into their State <br />Drought Plan updates, providing an increasingly comprehensive assessment of regional <br />and local drought vulnerabilities and capabilities in the State. This will improve the value <br />of the document on both State and local levels. One key component to this effort is to <br />develop a system where information from local drought plans and drought related <br />information in other local plans can be incorporated into a CWCB database. This <br />database has been identified as an action item in the 2007 update to the State Drought <br />Plan. Information in this database can be used for updates to the State Drought Plan as <br />well as to assist in coordinating State drought response efforts and periodically <br />assessing overall drought vulnerability and adaptive capacity actions at a regional and <br />local level. AMEC has developed similar tools to roll up, integrate and analyze <br />information from local mitigation plans in the updates of other state hazard mitigation <br />plans such as Missouri and Kansas. <br />The AMEC team will work with CWCB staff in developing a list of features and content <br />CWCB would like to have incorporated into a centralized database containing local <br />drought planning information. At a minimum this will include qualitative and quantitative <br />(where available) vulnerability information, local goals or objectives related to drought, <br />drought capabilities, and mitigation strategies. This user friendly database will be <br />