To manage drought risks effectively, it is important to understand the likely impacts, who will be at risk, and why. Our scientists have developed drought monitoring and early warning systems that can help water companies, regulators, policy makers and others to assess vulnerability to droughts before they occur. Our systems enable us to monitor and predict the severity and extent of hazards, as well as their likely effect on the economy and society, and they support stakeholders to design effective measures to reduce and prevent the worst impacts of drought.
Tool: The UK Water Resources Portal
Drought monitoring features are embedded into the UK Water Resources Portal, an interactive tool to monitor the UK hydrological situation in (near) real-time at a range of spatial scales.
The portal brings together rainfall, river flow, soil moisture and groundwater level data in one place, and showcases the use of live river flow data from the Environment Agency and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency as well as COSMOS-UK soil moisture data.
The standardised drought indices have been added to the portal as they are commonly used to monitor droughts around the world — in fact the World Meteorological Organization recommend the use of the Standardised Precipitation Index for monitoring meteorological droughts.
Access the UK Water Resources Portal >
