Agricultural Drought Indices - US Department of Agriculture

d) Specific training needs and exchange of expertise necessary to build capacity for drought
management are identified.
e) A comprehensive, timely, and effective data and information delivery system on drought
management that incorporates stakeholder/end user is developed.
f) Augmenting the growing capability to provide seasonal and interannual climate forecasts is
necessary to mitigate the effects of drought and desertification. Research into the causes and
effects of climate variations and long-term climate predictions with a view to providing early
warning is an essential component of this effort.
In this context, WMO will continue to place emphasis on sound monitoring and assessment of
droughts, including hazard analysis and vulnerability assessment. WMO has a major role (through
its early warning systems and preparedness strategies) to play in reducing the vulnerability of the
farming community to risks associated with drought and will continue to place stress on capacity
building related to drought preparedness and drought management.
References
Baier, W. 1967. Recent advances in the use of standard climatic data for estimating soil moisture.
Annals of Arid Zone Research 6(1).
Baier, W. and G.W. Robertson. 1966. Estimation of latent evaporation from simple weather
observations. Canadian Journal of Plant Science 45:276-284.
Bryant, E.A. 1991. Natural Hazards. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Barger, G.L. and H.C.S. Thom. 1949. A method for characterizing drought intensity in Iowa.
Agronomy Journal 41:13-19.
Chenault, E.A. and G. Parsons. 1998. Drought worse than 96; Cotton crops one of worst ever.
http://agnews.tamu.edu/stories/AGEC/Aug1998a.htm.
Dale, R.F. 1964. Weather effects on experimental plot corn yields: Climatology of selected
favorable and unfavorable conditions. Ph.D. thesis. Iowa State University of Science
and Technology, Ames, Iowa, USA.
Dale, R.F. 1968. The climatology of soil moisture, evaporation, and non-moisture stress days for
corn in Iowa. Agricultural Meteorology 5:111-128.
Dale, R.F. and R.H. Shaw. 1965. The climatology of soil moisture, atmospheric evaporative
demand and resulting moisture stress days for corn at Ames, Iowa. Journal of Applied
Meteorology 4:661-669.
Denmead, O.T. and R.H. Shaw. 1962. Availability of soil water to plants as affected by soil
moisture content and meteorological conditions. Agronomy Journal 45:385-390.
FEMA. 1995. National Mitigation Strategy: Partnerships for Building Safer Communities. Federal
Emergency Management Agency, Washington, D.C.
Hane, D.C. and F.V. Pumphrey. 1984. Crop Water Use Curves for Irrigation Scheduling.
Agricultural Experiment Station, Oregon State University, Corvallis.
Keetch, J.J. and G.M. Byram. 1968. A drought index for forest fire control. Forest Service
Research, U.S. Department of Agriculture Paper SE-38.
Mack, A.R. and W.S. Ferguson. 1968. A moisture stress index for wheat by means of a modulated
soil moisture budget. Canadian Journal of Plant Science 48:535-543.
Palmer, W.C. 1965. Meteorological drought. U.S. Weather Bureau, Washington DC. Research
Paper No. 45.
Sharp, J. 1996. Texas and the 1996 Drought. Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, Austin.
Sivakumar, M.V.K. and R. Stefanski. 2007. Climate and land degradation – an overview. Pages
106-135 in Climate and Land Degradation (M.V.K. Sivakumar and Ndegwa Ndiang’ui,
eds.). Springer, Berlin.
Tannehill, I.R. 1947. Drought: Its Causes and Effects. Princeton University Pres, Princeton, New
Jersey.
Wilhite, D.A. and M.H. Glantz. 1985. Understanding the drought phenomenon: The role of
definitions. Water International 10(3):111-120.
33