Desertification and Drought
UN Convention to Combat Desertification and related sites
Desertification & drought research institutions
Against Drought--Natural Resources Conservation Service
With good planning, good management, and good information, farms
and ranches can reduce the impacts of drought. The Department of Agriculture's
Joint Agricultural Weather Facility and the Natural Resources Conservation
Service's (NRCS), National Water and Climate Center, along with the
U.S. Departments of Commerce and Interior, and the National Drought
Mitigation Center (NDMC) at University of Nebraska, Lincoln, helps people
prepare for and deal with drought.
- United Nations
Development Programme, Drylands Development Centre
This site provides publications and reports from a variety of activities
- National Drought Mitigation Center
The NDMC helps people and institutions both in the US and internationally
develop and implement measures to reduce societal vulnerability to drought.
- New Mexico
Office of the State Engineer
This Website features the Water Administration Technical Engineering
Resource System (WATERS), a database that is updated continually. Extensive water rights and water conservation information is also provided.
Working Group on Land Degradation and Desertification of the International
Union of Soil Sciences
This provides a great deal of information about soils and organizations
which research land degradation.
- Drought Monitor Site
Tracking drought blends science and art. No single definition of
drought works for all circumstances, so people rely on drought indices
to detect and measure droughts. But no single index works under all
circumstances, either. That's why we need the Drought Monitor, a synthesis
of multiple indices, outlooks and news accounts, that represents a consensus
of federal and academic scientists. The product will be refined over
time as we find ways to make it better reflect the needs of decision-makers
and others who use the information.
Background information on desertification