New platform supports integrated drought management in Africa and South Asia

Knowledge and outputs from the International Water Management Institute (IWMI)'s two decades of research into monitoring and managing droughts are now available through a single platform. The new website "IWMI Drought Monitor", developed with support from the CGIAR Initiative on NEXUS Gains, shares comprehensive information from the Institute's work implementing drought-management innovations. As climate change progresses, the site can help politicians, scientists, and policymakers to mitigate drought in vulnerable nations.

Building on a history of innovation

IWMI has been at the forefront of drought management since 2004, when it developed a drought-monitoring system for Southwest Asia. This prototype demonstrated the potential of remote-sensing for charting the development of droughts over time - and led to the creation of the South Asia Drought Monitoring System (SADMS) 10 years later.

By providing periodic updates on drought conditions across South Asia, and facilitating timely action by national, state, and district authorities, SADMS has helped smallholder farmers throughout India and Sri Lanka to cope with prolonged dry spells. In 2020, IWMI gained official recognition for SADMS when it won the Geospatial World Excellence Award for the system's positive contribution towards mitigating drought.

Since it first created SADMS, IWMI has expanded its capabilities to include the development of drought-management expertise - which has informed drought-response systems in Afghanistan, India, Jordan, Morocco, and Zambia. The Institute has also developed an index insurance package which bundles low-cost, satellite-verified insurance with drought-tolerant seeds and climate services to help strengthen smallholders' resilience to dry periods and droughts.

Using a three-pillar response

So how do the drought-management systems presented in the new website work? The IWMI approach is to use drought-monitoring indicators and prediction tools within a three-pillar system: monitoring and early warning; risk and impact assessment; and mitigation, preparedness, and response.

Pillar 1 presents information on the satellite indices used to monitor drought, such as rainfall, land-surface temperature, soil moisture, and vegetation health. Pillar 2 focuses on understanding which of a nation's communities, economic sectors, and environments are most affected by droughts, and the underlying reasons for susceptibility. Pillar 3 demonstrates how the information from pillars 1 and 2 can be used to design appropriate policy and planning interventions.

At an operational level, national- to local-level datasets drawn from multiple satellites and other sources provide the core of the drought-management system. The system uses these data to provide seasonal, sub-seasonal, and seven-day weather forecasts, along with monitoring tools to indicate when drought is present and, if it is, its level of severity. The system indicates when specified triggers have been reached, so that pre-defined contingency plans can then be put into action.

Making forecasts work for farmers

Systems like SADMS are particularly suited to supporting poor, smallholder farmers who are often the most vulnerable to droughts, particularly through failed harvests. For example, a government's agriculture department might use a drought-management system to observe that, in recent years, the start of the crop season has been characterized by dry spells of two to three weeks. In such a case they might advise farmers to delay planting crops if the trend persists. Similarly, extension workers might identify that local farmers are growing rainfed groundnut, and advise them to sow a less water-intensive crop, like maize, if poor monsoon rains are anticipated.

IWMI's work supporting farmers, policymakers, and scientists is supported by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, NEXUS Gains, and Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Alongside the new website, IWMI has made significant strides in translating early warning into early action and finance in response to climate shocks, particularly through the development of the AWARE platform, supported by the CGIAR initiative on Climate Resilience.

Today, IWMI is leveraging newly available technologies - such as artificial intelligence and machine learning - to predict drought with greater accuracy than ever before. These innovations are helping to shape the drought-management systems of the future. By sharing these advances, combined with two decades of experience in monitoring and managing droughts, IWMI aims to empower communities worldwide to confront the ever-increasing risk of drought, ensuring a more food-secure and water-resilient future for all.

Giriraj Amarnath ([email protected]) is Principal Researcher - Disaster Risk Management and Climate Resilience, IWMI; Alok Sikka ([email protected]) is Country Representative - India, Bangladesh, IWMI.

This work was carried out under the CGIAR Initiative on NEXUS Gains, which is grateful for the support of CGIAR Trust Fund contributors: www.cgiar.org/funders

Header image: Screenshot showing South Asia drought map. Image from IWMI.