Critical Analysis of the Value of Drought Information and Impacts on Land Management and Public Health

Authors

Tingting Liu, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Kelly Helm Smith, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Richard Krop, Cadmus GroupFollow
Tonya Haigh, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Mark Svoboda, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

ORCID IDs

Tingting Liu

Kelly Helm Smith

Mark Svoboda

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2020

Citation

Water 2020, 12, 1064; doi:10.3390/w12041064

Comments

(c) 2020 by the authors

Abstract

This paper reviews previous efforts to assign monetary value to climatic or meteorological information, such as public information on drought, climate, early warning systems, and weather forecast information. Methods and tools that have been explored to examine the benefits of climatic and meteorological information include the avoided cost, contingent valuation, choice experiments, benefit transfer, and descriptive approaches using surveys. The second part of this paper discusses specific considerations related to valuing drought information for public health and the Bureau of Land Management. We found a multitude of connections between drought and the land management and health sectors in the literature. The majority of the papers that we summarized only report biophysical change, because the economic losses of drought are not available. Only a few papers reported economic loss associated with drought. To determine the value of drought information, we need to know more about the role it plays in decision making and what sources of drought information are used in different sectors. This inventory of methods and impacts highlights opportunities for further research in valuing drought information in land management and public health.