Republican Riber Basin Water and Drought Portal

Water and Drought Planning Processes

Water and drought planning are essential for ensuring a sustainable water supply. Water planning will help outline a path for future water development, while drought planning identifies strategies to help prevent and respond to water shortages. An increasing number of resources are available to help guide water and drought planning.

Putting Together a Watershed Management Plan (2010)

This guide is one of a series of publications developed by the Conservation Technology Information Center pertaining to water quality, agricultural, and natural resource and watershed management. The guide provides an overview of watershed management planning in three phases: 1) identifying challenges and objectives, 2) developing the plan, and 3) implementing and evaluating the plan.

Drought Management Toolkit for Public Water Suppliers (2008)
The Utah DNR has put together a drought management toolkit to help public water suppliers better prepare for and manage droughts. The two main elements of the toolkit are a model drought mitigation plan and a model drought response plan (contingency plan).

Urban Drought Guidebook (2008)
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the California Urban Water Conservation Council worked together on the guidebook to provide technical assistance to local water suppliers.

Responding to Drought: A Guide for City, County, and Water Systems Officials (2006)
The Kansas Governor’s Drought Response Team developed this guide to help local planners develop a drought response plan. Topics covered include drought monitoring, local planning and coordination, disaster declarations, state and federal assistance, and sources of additional information.

Drought Planning for Small Community Water Systems (2006)

The Midwest Technology Assistance Center prepared this report which provides a framework for improving drought preparedness planning for small community water systems in the MTAC region (e.g., Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and Wisconsin).

Drought Preparedness Planning: Building Institutional Capacity (2004)

This features the NDMC’s 10-step Drought Planning Process. The 10-step planning process was developed in 1991, with revisions in 2000 and 2004. It provides guidelines for creating a drought plan and a process to adapt the plan to any level of government or geographical setting.

How to Reduce Drought Risk (1998)
The Preparedness and Mitigation working group of the Western Drought Coordination Council (WDCC), which included NDMC staff, created this guide to assessing vulnerability to drought. It is a step-by-step process for users to identify actions that can be taken to reduce potential drought-related impacts.

The National Drought Mitigation Center also provides links to several regional and local drought plans developed by watershed associations, communities, and other regional entities.