Abstract

Using ArcGIS 10 to Estimate the U.S. Population Affected by Drought
Track: Python for Analysis
Authors: Jeffrey Nothwehr, Calvin Poulsen

Drought has become an increasingly serious problem for heavily populated urban areas, and as a result there have been numerous requests for estimates of the number of people affected. The U.S. Drought Monitor production process uses ArcGIS 10 and Python and because of this, a methodology for creating these population estimates was able to be easily implemented as part of the production process. This has also made it possible to deliver these estimates to the public in a timely manner.