INDUSTRY

Purdue University researchers have begun a three-year project to develop technology that can be used in a number of different ways to combat the consequences of major drought. Researchers are developing a Web-enabled system for accessing data related to drought impact, while creating tools to probe, integrate and visualize information to aid in decision-making during a drought crisis. The National Science Foundation is funding the project. When it is finished, researchers envision a prototype that can be used by climatologists, hydrologists, water systems managers, businesses, economists, farmers and local, state and federal governments. They want to expand on other drought-related research and the active online community portal U.S. Drought Monitor, which takes more of a national view and tends not to dip below the state level in its analyses. A Purdue team, including a group from Purdue's Rosen Center for Advanced Computing, is working on ways to tailor drought-related information on a more localized level, better track the onset of droughts and predict drought impacts. The system will make use of the TeraGrid, the world's largest open science computing network. Purdue is a TeraGrid partner and resource provider through the Rosen Center, the research and discovery computing arm of Information Technology at Purdue.