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Abstract
Droughts are major climate events that have strong negative effects on water resources for both natural and human systems worldwide. In the Caribbean, droughts have affected agricultural production and local economies and have diminished the quality of life for the general population (Álvarez-Berríos et al. 2018). Better monitoring, forecasting, and planning efforts could certainly lead to improved ways of coping with the impacts of droughts in this region. Strong negative effects of droughts in Puerto Rico (PR) and the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) stress the need to build resilience at local and regional levels, but reaching this goal has had its obstacles. For instance, drought-related initiatives have existed in the region but have often been siloed by agencies or remained unknown to other relevant entities. There is also a need to foster and support the generation and dissemination of tailored drought information that is temporally and spatially relevant to regional drought decision-makers. A pivotal step to begin addressing the disconnect among drought professionals and lack of critical drought information is to strengthen collaboration and communication among researchers, managers, and local stakeholders. Drought Learning Networks (DLN), initially established by key climate providers in the southwestern United States, provide valuable frameworks to achieve these goals as they promote peer-to-peer knowledge exchange between climate service providers and resource managers (Elias et al. 2020). Realizing the potential benefits of an analogous network in the Caribbean, members of the USDA Caribbean Climate Hub (CCH) proposed the creation of a Caribbean Drought Learning Network (CDLN).
Citation
Mercado-Díaz, Joel A.; Holupchinski, Eva; Álvarez-Berríos, Nora; Gould, William A.; Miller, Paul; Mote, Thomas; Ramseyer, Craig; González, Grizelle. 2023. Fostering Knowledge Exchange and Collaboration among Drought-Related Initiatives in the Caribbean. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. 104(6): E1146-E1153. https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-23-0054.1.
