|
Deepseawaters
Home
NOAA Awards $3.8 Million to Louisiana, Oklahoma Universities for Climate, Drought Assessment, Planning Tools
NOAA Awards $3.8 Million to Louisiana, Oklahoma Universities for Climate, Drought Assessment, Planning Tools
October 07,2008.
Research
funding totaling $3.85 million over five years has been awarded
to the University of Oklahoma and Louisiana State University
by NOAA's
Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments Program.
The funding will be used to assess the risks of climate and
drought impacts in their regions, and to develop tools and
resources for use by local and regional community managers
in their long-range planning.
"This
effort will provide significant research and leadership for
developing decision support tools and information services
key to assessing, reducing and managing drought risks," said
Roger S. Pulwarty, director of the National Integrated Drought
Information System, established by NOAA's Climate Program Office. "Not
only will this region benefit but so could other parts of
the United States."
Drought
is a major issue in the southern United States. Community
planners often focus on more dramatic, damaging and life-threatening
events, like hurricanes, yet droughts can affect a much larger
area, last much longer, displace as many people, and cause
long-lasting damage to the environment.
The
Oklahoma Climatological Survey, a research unit of the College
of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences at the University of
Oklahoma, and Louisiana State University's Department of Geography
and Anthropology have been awarded first-year funding totaling
$700,000 to establish the ninth and newest RISA project, the
Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program.
SCIPP
will focus on climate and drought risk assessment, forecasting,
and management as it relates to other climate-related hazards
in the six-state region of, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi,
Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. SCIPP is an integral part of
the evolution of the NOAA-led National Integrated Drought
Information System.
SCIPP
will work closely with community managers to develop climate-risk
profiles of communities, including risks related to drought,
and assessment of how climate change might affect those communities.
Community planners will gain access to a unified hazards assessment
Web site for drought and climate hazards information to help
them assess their risk and adaptation options. SCIPP's approach
promotes adaptive behavior so that communities may be better
prepared for current and future hazards.
 Email
To Friend
|
