2016 - Adaptive drought vulnerability index for strategic emergency response (ADVISER) model

Grant Award Year: 
2016-2017
Principal Investigator: 
Pagsuyoin, Sheree
Research Description: 
To develop the conceptual framework for the Adaptive Drought Vulnerability Index for Strategic Emergency Response (ADVISER) Model, a visual and dynamic decision support tool for the adaptive mapping of regional vulnerabilities to increasing drought severity in Northeast United States. Specifically, the research aims to: (1) Develop a regional water input-output model (WIOM) to estimate the inoperability and economic losses that are incurred across interdependent sectors over time during prolonged periods of drought and increasing drought severity in Northeast US; (2) Formulate a rating system, in the form of vulnerability indices, to evaluate the impacts of varying drought severity on the economic and operational performance of interdependent economic sectors; (3) Integrate available drought-related databases with the WIOM [from (1)] and the vulnerability rating scale [from (2)] into a single platform – the ADVISER Model – that enables the visualization and dynamic spatial mapping of changes in drought vulnerabilities during the drought timeline; (4) Identify gaps in available data that will enable the identification of regional and sector-specific vulnerabilities to drought; (5) Evaluate the time-varying resilience of economic sectors across regions to different drought emergency mitigation strategies; and (6) Apply the WIOM and the vulnerability rating scale to a case study of Massachusetts to analyze drought vulnerabilities across sectors and identify gaps in existing drought response emergency programs.