WSP04710

• File Number: 8056
• Description: Drought Preparedness
• State: CO
• Basin: Statewide
• Date: 6/1/1997
• Author: Donald Wilhite
• Title: Improving Drought Management in the West
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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State-Level Drought Planning: Current Status

Lessons From Recent Droughts: State-Level Mitigation Tools

Wilhite (1993a) recently reviewed ongoing and developing Federal, interstate,
and State drought mitigation technologies, programs, and policies in the
United States. This study was based on the assumption that the roles of
Federal and State Governments in drought mitigation needed to be
reexamined, given the severity of drought experienced in the United States
between 1986 and 1992; the economic, social, and environmental costs
associated with these droughts; and the mitigation actions and policy efforts
underway at all levels of government, One of the goals of the study was to
identify opportunities to improve the effectiveness of drought mitigation
efforts by the Natural Resources Conservation Service of the U.S. Department
of Agriculture and other Federal agencies, A premise ofthis study was that
the Nation's ability to cope with and manage water shortages resulting from'
drought would only be improved if an integrated approach within and
between levels of government, involving regional organizations and the
private sector, where appropriate, were adopted,

This section of the paper presents emerging drought assessment and
mitigation technologies employed by State Government in recent years to
lessen the effects of severe drought, Numerous innovative institutional
arrangements were introduced during this period to manage water more
effectively and efficiently in response to drought and increased demand.
These data were collected through a survey of States and key Federal
agencies with responsibility for the management of water and other natural
resources. The survey was directed at specific drought mitigation actions
taken or programs adopted during the period from 1986 to 1992, a period with
a high incidence of drought in the West.

Mitigation is defined in several.ways in the natural hazards literature, Hy
and Waugh (1990) referred to mitigation as activities that reduce the degree
oflong-term risk to human life and property. These actions normally include
insurance strategies, the adoption of building codes, land-use management,
risk mapping, tax incentives and disincentives, and diversification. Drought
is not often directly responsible for loss oflife, and its impacts are largely
nonstructuraI. Therefore, this definition is not appropriate in this case. For
the purpose of assessing mitigative actions specific to drought, this definition
was modified as follows: short- and long-term actions, programs, or policies
implemented in advance that reduce the degree of risk to people, property,
and productive capacity.

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