DROUGHT INDICES IN DECISION-MAKING PROCESS OF DROUGHT MANAGEMENT

iii Drought indices are one of the most important elements of an effective drought monitoring and early warning system. They help to characterize drought and guide appropriate responses to reduce drought impacts. Drought indicators are more useful than raw data in decision-making process, even though each index has specific use and limited by its strengths and weaknesses. The literature review showed the evaluation of drought conditions by decision-makers as an important issue, but so far no research has been done to understand how decision-makers use diverse and often conflicting values of drought indices to make drought declarations. This research studies how drought declarations by decision-makers relate to drought indices to measure past two droughts in South Carolina. The South Carolina Drought Response Committee (DRC), the state’s major drought decision-making body, evaluates climate data and seven drought indices to issue drought status declarations for each county of the state. The case of South Carolina’