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In this Section:
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Background |
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Project Overview |
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Research Methods |
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Status of Project |
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Related Links |
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Contacts |
El
Niño often brings increased moisture to the Southwest, but is the
end of the current drought in sight?
Research
and Products:
END
InSight: El Niño-Drought Initiative
Status of Project
During the first three months of the END InSight Initiative, we collected and entered into a database over 15,000 pieces of information based on responses to initial and monthly surveys. Based on stakeholder feedback, we are beginning to identify which particular information products our participants find most useful and likely to form the basis for action and which ones could be improved to better meet their needs.
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| Figure 3. Percentage of stakeholder taking action using END InSight drought materials. [more details] |
Our surveys also show that some stakeholders are taking action based on the materials they are receiving. For example, more than 40 percent of the participants indicated that they had taken action based on drought materials in the first two packets. Written comments on the surveys indicate the most common action is sharing the information with others, particularly among land, water, and wildlife managers, and extension agents and their field staffs.
We continue to analyze data from the project and have already shared stakeholder feedback with the agencies responsible for creating the climate products. The project team is currently submitting articles to peer-reviewed publications about the research findings.
News Coverage
Starting in July 2002, we held a series of media briefings in Tucson, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Phoenix—resulting in print, radio, and TV coverage of drought, El Niño, the monsoon, and other related topics. Due to this success, we have continued to hold media briefings beyond the end of the project as a way to communcate imporatnt climate information to the public.
We
have monitored drought, El Niño, and other climate-related news
coverage since January 2002. From this effort, we have developed a database recent newspaper
reports that provide a valuable and resource for tracing the progression
of public awareness and discourse about current and predicted drought
and El Niño conditions.
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| Figure 4. News coverage of drought's economic impacts. [More details] |
Beyond END InSight
Since the completion of the END InSight project, we have continued to provide up-to-date climate information to the public through the Southwest Climate Outlook on the CLIMAS website. This monthly outlook contains many of the same climate products contained in END InSight packets. Feedback from stakeholders during the project have been incorporated to improve several products and the overall look of the packets was recently redesigned to improve usability.
We will continue to use the information gathered through the END InSight project to formulate recommendations for improving the quality, quantity, and communication of climate information not only within the Southwest, but nationwide. We continue to encourage researchers and those involved in providing climate services to take action on the recommendations we make. Likewise, we have maintained communications with project participants and others to assure that they continue to receive the best climate information available for the Southwest.
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