Collaborative Research: Reconstruction of Drought and Streamflow over the Coterminous US from Tree Rings with Extensions into Mexico and Canada

University Of Arizona, Tucson AZ

Investigators

Abstract

This award is for support of a collaborative study (University of Arizona, University of Colorado, and Columbia University, the latter funded under a separate award from NOAA) to considerably broaden the scope of past drought reconstructions from tree rings, now based on the Palmer Drought Severity Index, by (a) improving and geographically expanding the existing grid of North American drought reconstructions from tree rings, (b) considering new measures of drought, (c) specifically developing techniques for reconstructing and analyzing key attributes of gaged streamflow series that are relevant for drought management through reservoir operation and water resource allocation, and (d) investigating new statistical methods for improving the reconstructions and the analysis of space-time drought variability.