Drought Risk and Adaptation in the Interior (DRAI) Database of Interviews with DOI/Tribal land managers in northwest Colorado, southwest South Dakota, and Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, 2013-2016

Description

The purpose of this study was to understand how the U.S. Department of Interior’s federal land and resource managers and their stakeholders (i.e., NPS, BLM, FWS, BOR, BIA and tribes, among others) are experiencing and dealing with drought in their landscapes. The database is part of the Drought Risk and Adaptation in the Interior project. We conducted in-depth interviews (n=41) with DOI and tribal land managers in three case sites across the north central United States (northwest Colorado, southwest South Dakota, and Wind River Reservation), the goal of which was to develop a better understanding of drought vulnerabilities, risks, and responses in high-risk, multi-jurisdictional landscapes across the Missouri River Basin. DRAI posed the following research questions: 1. How do different resource managers from the Department of Interior (DOI), other federal agencies, and tribal communities perceive and characterize drought risk for the lands they manage? 2. How are their respective grassland/rangeland, fish and wildlife, and forest management decisions affected by those drought risk perceptions? 3. What indicators (e.g., climate science, local knowledge) are used to document and understand drought conditions and progression? 4. What are the impacts of drought to key management targets and livelihoods? 5. What are their differential capacities (and barriers) for responding to and preparing for drought risks? Data was analyzed using a grounded-theory approach, where risk perceptions, responses, and capacities to respond are derived from the stakeholders themselves. The database includes 41 in-depth interview transcripts with DOI (USFWS, BLM, NPS, BIA) land/resource managers, state and district water administrators, and tribal land and resource managers from 3 case sites. A range of expertise was represented in these interviews and included water resource managers/engineers, ecologists, wildlife biologists, fire coordinators, rangeland management specialists, among others. Each transcript has been coded, analyzed, and compared across cases and management situations in the context of the 5 overarching questions, as well as in the context of the inter-related climate drivers, ecological impacts, and adaptation/responses in the context of drought and climate change. The database includes 300+ social, climate, and ecological codes that describe the social-ecological context of drought and drought management in each respective case. See cross-listed publications and reports for major findings.

Resources

Name Format Description Link
0 http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-17-0183.1
55 The metadata original source https://data.doi.gov/harvest/object/a1a46bdd-5cfb-413c-b129-fa1666d9abce
0 http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/WCAS-D-16-0121.1
33 McNeeley_%26_Beeton_2017.pdf http://nccsc.colostate.edu/sites/default/files/projects/McNeeley_%26_Beeton_2017.pdf
0 j.crm.2017.09.004 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.crm.2017.09.004
0 http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/WCAS-D-15-0042.1

Tags

  • droughts
  • effects-of-climate-change
  • northwest-colorado
  • human-impacts
  • southwest-south-dakota
  • missouri-river-basin
  • natural-resource-management
  • risk-assessment
  • climate-change
  • north-central-united-states
  • social-sciences
  • wind-river-reservation

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