Afghanistan Drought Early Warning Decision Support (AF-DEWS) Tool

Amarnath, Giriraj; Ghosh, Surajit; Alahacoon, Niranga. 2023. Afghanistan Drought Early Warning Decision Support (AF-DEWS) Tool. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). 53p. (IWMI Research Report 188) [doi: https://doi.org/10.5337/2023.223]

This report summarizes the development of the Afghanistan Drought Early Warning Decision Support (AF-DEWS) Tool, a cloud-based online platform with near real-time information on drought conditions, to provide decision-makers with maps and data to enable further analysis. The report provides an overview of how the AF-DEWS Tool was developed and how it can be used to systematically monitor, detect and forecast drought conditions in Afghanistan. The tool provides a wide range of indicators/indices to assess the severity of meteorological (rainfall anomaly, standardized precipitation index), hydrological (snow cover index, streamflow drought index, surface water supply index), and agricultural (vegetation health index, integrated drought severity index) droughts. The authors evaluated historical drought events, specifically the widespread drought event of 2018, to identify the precise impact of drought that has affected more than 13 million people across 22 of the 34 provinces in the severe to extreme drought category. Key drought indices were selected to undertake a detailed evaluation of the major drought events and their impacts on crop production. Satellite-derived (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer [MODIS]) Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) data and observed wheat production data provided by the National Statistics and Information Authority (NSIA) were used. This demonstrates the capabilities of the AF-DEWS Tool in supporting drought early warning and informing preparedness and risk reduction measures.