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Introduction

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In 2018, the Colorado Plateau experienced an exceptional drought that impacted wildfire potential, agricultural production, water management, the economy, and human well-being. Though this drought mirrored previous drought experiences in the region, the region lacked a way to succinctly document and communicate the novel drought experiences and responses among service providers, federal and state officials, scientists, and stakeholders. In response, scientists from the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS), National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC), and the USDA Southwest Climate Hub (SWCH) initiated the development of the Southwest Drought Learning Network (DLN) to convene and learn from people studying and experiencing drought. 

This network provides a space for climate change climate change
Climate change includes both global warming driven by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases and the resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns. Though there have been previous periods of climatic change, since the mid-20th century humans have had an unprecedented impact on Earth's climate system and caused change on a global scale.

Learn more about climate change service providers and resource managers to meet regularly, share resources and lessons learned, and develop adaptation strategies together. This framework for knowledge-, resource-, and tool-sharing will help to prepare for future drought, while providing a community for climate service providers and natural resource managers in challenging times. 

Participants in the DLN include resource managers at all levels of government and communities that have the opportunity to learn from one another about recommended actions in response to a variety of drought impacts. It is also a place for drought and climate service providers (NIDIS, NDMC, State Climatologists, USDA Climate Hubs, Climate Assessment for the Southwest, Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program, etc.) to: a) foster bidirectional knowledge exchange in learning about community and researcher needs, resources, responses and knowledge gaps; b) support the creation of a self-directed peer-to-peer learning network; and c) establish structures that are co-lead by the users to support the efficient and effective function of DLN to best respond to future drought.

Key Issues Addressed

The Southwest is one of hottest and driest regions in the world. While drought has been a consistent issue in the region, scientists expect droughts to increase in intensity and duration. These changes threaten already-stressed ecosystems, agriculture production, and human well-being. For instance, coping with drought can be a stressful experience, degrading people’s mental health. Often, drought impacts exceed people’s ability to cope with drought despite their familiarity with it. 

Further, drought impacts manifest in a variety of ways, often hitting communities unequally. This complexity not only necessitates understanding and documenting these different impacts, but also having a range of resources, tools, and adaptations to meet the multitude of needs people must take to combat drought. 

Project Goals

• Develop avenues of communication among resource managers and climate service providers to increase collaboration and effectiveness of drought responses
• Create a one-stop-shop of tools, resources, and contacts to help people learn from past drought and better prepare for current or future drought
• Foster peer-to-peer knowledge exchange and a sense of community that ensures resource managers are better supported when facing drought challenges and are able to assist in ameliorating drought impacts on livestock, landscapes, and communities 

Project Highlights

Funds for Fairness: The NRCS Racial Justice Cooperative Agreement enabled the DLN’s Indigenous Collaboration team, NDMC, Santa Ana and Middle Rio Grande Pueblos to apply funds to climate-smart agriculture.

• Team Work: All work of the DLN occurs within self-directed teams that develop, continue, and dissolve based upon drought needs in the Southwest.During the inaugural meeting of the DLN in February of 2020, five teams were formed around emerging aspects of drought. Team members self-selected which team(s) they wanted to participate in and team leads naturally emerged within each team. While the teams have since evolved, the five teams currently include the following:
  • Sharing Management Practices: documents lessons learned through case study development and dissemination in collaboration with the Collaborative Conservation and Adaptation Strategy Toolbox (CCAST). The team also coordinates with the.
  • Drought in Agriculture: focuses on tasks related to drought planning with ranchers and farmers in the region.
  • Projections to People: assists in making drought projections and research digestible to users.
  • Indigenous Collaboration: led by Tribal members, works with Tribal communities to amplify Indigenous-specific drought needs and resilience, establish trust, and facilitate knowledge sharing for enhancing community adaptation.
  • Impact Reporting and Response: works with and educates individuals on the importance of drought impact reporting.
• Maintained Momentum: Despite its creation weeks prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the network still met its objectives. Streamlined communication through a project management platform called Basecamp, quarterly meetings, team organization, and the increase in drought magnitude maintained network momentum.
• Digestible Outputs: Recognizing the issue of pandemic-induced Zoom-fatigue, the network designed outputs and outreach to accommodate busy schedules and weary members. For instance, the DLN shortened their drought webinars from an hour to 30-minute briefings. In doing so, they held consistent participation of more than 100 listeners.
• Output Numbers: In the first two years of existence, the DLN has supported 20 weather and climate briefings, 14 webinars, one workshop, 9 case studies, and contributed to a monthly podcast covering a wide range of drought and climate resilience related topics.

Lessons Learned

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Involvement in the DLN is an additional responsibility to the many jobs members already hold. Thus, finding network structures that accommodate busy schedules is critical. The team created a multi-team structure structure
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Learn more about structure , each with multiple leaders, to carry out the goals of the DLN without putting excessive burden on any one individual. Just as multiple leaders maintain momentum for each team, having multiple teams maintains momentum for the DLN. 

Members come to the network with access to their own agency’s or organization’s resources available for leveraging. In identifying these resources, the network saves time and energy in accomplishing goals by not recreating the wheel. For example, CCAST already had an existing process and platform for developing case studies on drought adaptations for use by the DLN teams. The regular drought impact briefing webinars were an original idea by the New Mexico State University Climate Center; however, this goal was made possible through the partnerships within the DLN who saw value in these opportunities and had additional resources to make it happen.

The DLN has succeeded in increasing communication among climate service providers; however, fostering communication between service providers and resource managers, and among resource managers, has been more challenging. Technical language barriers common in drought conversations can pose a challenge in fostering communication between service providers and resource managers. Further, establishing trusting relationships and the appropriate communication channels is a long-term process.

Next Steps

• Expand building partnerships and continue bringing awareness to the DLN
• Increase knowledge-sharing through existing and emerging teams, meetings, and webinars with the hope of in-person events as pandemic safety measures permit
• Create more avenues to reach and increase involvement among resource managers
• Continue connecting and creating relationships with Indigenous communities throughout the Southwest
• Maintain momentum even in periods of drought relief so as to be more prepared for the next drought
• Serve as a model for others interested in developing a DLN, such as in the Caribbean 

Funding Partner

Resources

Contacts

• Emile Elias, USDA Southwest Climate Hub: emile.elias@usda.gov
• Tonya Bernadt, University of Lincoln, Nebraska, National Drought Mitigation Center: tbernadt5@unl.edu

CART Lead Authors

• Viktorya Martinez, DLN Intern, New Mexico State University: viktorya@nmsu.edu
• Maude Dinan, Program Specialist, USDA Southwest Climate Hub: mdinan@nmsu.ed

The DLN is a peer-to-peer knowledge exchange between climate service providers and resource managers, created to gather and share lessons learned from drought events to prepare for future events. The DLN partners with CART to develop Case Studies, with funding from the National Drought Mitigation Center for interns and coordination support from the USDA Southwest Climate Hub.

Suggested Citation

Martinez, V., Dinan, M., Elias, E., and Bernadt, T. (2022). “Developing a Southwest Drought Learning Network.” CART. Retrieved from /project/southwest-drought-learning-network.