Who, what, where, why, and how? A typology of drought decision making in the north central United States

Drought is a natural part of climate across the north central United States, yet making decisions to prepare for, and respond to, drought is the result of complex biophysical and social processes that occur across scales and contexts. How drought manifests on the landscape, how people experience drought, which social-ecological resources are vulnerable and impacted by drought, combined with socio-cultural, political, and institutional factors all affect decision making on the ground. Climate change complicates these already complex decision-making processes through changes in the frequency, intensity, duration, and uncertainty surrounding future drought regimes. While there are several case studies that document the contexts under which these decisions occur in local places, there is less understanding of the portfolio of decisions that are made on public and tribal lands across cases, jurisdictions, and scales. Therefore, there is an urgent need to better understand the who, what, where, why, and how of decision making in these contexts. In this presentation, we will present a management decision typology developed from synthesis efforts of three in-depth case studies on public and tribal lands. The typology will document: a) the types of decisions that are made; b) spatial and temporal scales in which decisions are made; and c) the institutional and regulatory context of decision making. We will synthesize the similarities and differences in drought decision making and present examples across cases, jurisdictions, and specific management targets (e.g., rangeland, fisheries) across the north central domain. In doing so, we hope to demonstrate the importance of understanding the complexity and nuance in decision making in local places and identify broader generalizations that characterize decision making across scales. This contributes to the goal of doing drought science that is salient, credible, and usable for decision making.