2.2
The President should appropriately direct and Congress, as necessary,
should authorize and fund continuation of the U.S. Drought Monitor and
exploration of opportunities for its improvement and expansion.
2.3
The President should appropriately direct and Congress, as necessary,
should authorize and fund continuation of Drought Predictions/Outlooks
and development of techniques to improve their accuracy and frequency.
2.4
The President should appropriately direct and Congress, as necessary,
should authorize and fund a comprehensive information gateway
(possibly through expansion of the National Drought Mitigation Center’s
website or other similar approaches) to provide users with free and
open access to observational network data and drought monitoring,
prediction, impact, assessment, preparedness, and mitigation measures.
Links among federal and nonfederal sources are critical.
2.5
The President should direct the appropriate federal agencies to
develop an effective drought information delivery system such as the
Unified Climate Access Network (UCAN) to communicate drought
conditions and impacts to decision makers at the federal, regional,
state, tribal, and local levels and to the private sector and general
public. The systems should include near real-time data, information
and products developed at each of these levels and integrated in an
appropriate fashion to accurately reflect regional and state
differences in drought conditions. The box below indicates some of the
critical participants in such a delivery system.
