Interactions of Drought and Climate Adaptation (IDCA) for Urban Water

Interactions Between Short-Term Drought Responses and Long-Term Climate Change Adaptation Strategies

Lisa Dilling, Bobbie Klein, Bill Travis

The Interactions of Drought and Climate Adaptation for urban water (IDCA) project funded by the NOAA Sectoral Applications Research Program (SARP), examines how drought policies interact with both short-term drought and long-term climate change. It asks whether adjustment today or in the past leads to more resilient systems across climate time scales. We are pursing a unique interdisciplinary approach to tackling these questions by including investigators from the natural hazards community, the climate adaptation community, experts in the use of climate information, and the water resource and policy community. We work in tandem with an Advisory Working Group of stakeholders from the water management and urban adaptation community to ensure that the work is relevant in this rapidly evolving context. The project has studied more than 20 water systems across the U.S. to understand the dynamics of urban water system vulnerability with respect to climate change.