Research in Great Plains Drought Management Strategies, Proceedings of the Workshop Held in Lincoln, Nebraska on March 26-28, 1979

摘要

The findings of four task groups are reported. Topics were technology; economics; politics and decision-making problems; and social and informational problems. Current knowledge of past and present effects of Great Plains drought was reviewed in each of the task groups and major areas where knowledge is lacking were identified and reported. The future vulnerability of the Great Plains region to drought was assessed. All task groups recognized the inevitability and the climatic normality of drought in the Great Plains region. It was generally agreed that physical vulnerability of the land is now increasing because of excessive use of fossil water and because of inappropriate land use in marginal areas. The economic (and therefore, political and social) vulnerability will likely increase since the Great Plains region's intensive agriculture, already strained by extreme and rapid increases in the costs of energy, can be shocked even more in times of drought.