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<br />DRAFT <br /> <br />Chapter 1: A Technical and Historical Description of Drought in Colorado <br /> <br /> <br />Authors: John Henz and Bill Badini, HDR; Larry Lang and Joe Busto, CWCB <br /> <br />Chapter 1 will be an introductory chapter and foundation for the rest of the report. It will <br />provide the reader with a scientific, yet accessible, understanding of what drought is. This <br />chapter will start by describing drought and providing a functional definition, discussing <br />the degrees of drought severity and how drought is quantified and its severity measured, <br />The climate patterns associated with drought will also be reviewed and analyzed. Next, <br />an historical summary of drought in Colorado will be presented, describing our <br />knowledge of the past 300 years (with a special section on tree-ring studies), the past <br />approximately 100 years of existing data, and the droughts of the 1930s, 1950s and <br />1970s, As part of the historical summary, data accuracy, confidence and length of record <br />will be reviewed. Information contained in this chapter will be presented at a state and <br />major river basin level. The chapter will contain a discussion of the recent drought in <br />Colorado (2000-2002), in context of the historical and scientific information presented. <br />The chapter will also incorporate a brief review of current drought literature and <br />resources. <br /> <br />5/1612003 <br /> <br />Page 3 <br />