The Southwest Drought Learning Network (SWDLN) links climate service providers with resource managers to increase community resilience when facing current and future drought events. This peer-to-peer knowledge exchange network was conceptualized as a framework for stakeholders to share experiences in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from drought so as to inform current and future response and mitigation actions. In February 2020, a workshop convened in Las Cruces, New Mexico that brought together service providers, federal and state officials, scientists, and stakeholders to establish a prototype DLN for the Southwestern U.S. in hopes that they could form a pathway to help communities learn from other communities.
Teams are formed based on the region’s current needs. The current teams are: Drought in Agriculture, Indigenous Collaboration, Monitoring & Impact Reporting, Projections to People, and Sharing Management Practices. The teams work on current needs in an effort to help resource managers prepare for and mitigate drought events. The teams, which consist of climate service providers and other experts in the field, share knowledge with each other and pass it on to resource managers/stakeholders. Peer-to-peer learning is the focus of the DLN. Past experiences, lessons learned, and availability to monitoring processes is a constant loop that increases the transfer of knowledge among teams and resource managers.
Please visit the Southwest Drought Learning Network website for more information.
