NSF R2I2: The Northern Great Plains Regional Incubator for Drought Resiliency

The Northern Great Plains—including Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska—faces increasing threats from disasters like droughts, wildfires, and floods. These events harm agriculture, recreation, and other sectors which are vital to the region’s economy and communities. The Northern Great Plains Regional Incubator for Drought Resiliency (NGP-RIDR) will improve the region’s ability to respond to these hazardous events using advanced tools such as satellite data, ground sensors, and artificial intelligence models to monitor and forecast water availability and drought conditions. NGP-RIDR brings together government agencies, tribal nations, farmers, researchers, and businesses to create a collaborative system for assessing and managing drought risk. NGP-RIDR also plans to expand education and workforce development, ensuring these communities are included in drought planning, assessment, and response. The project will improve disaster aid delivery, support sustainable agriculture, and provide new business opportunities by sharing its innovations with other regions. Overall, this project is designed to protect the Northern Great Plains while becoming a national model for drought resilience. The economy of the Northern Great Plains region depends upon crop lands and rangelands as important food and fiber productions systems. The region’s lands and agricultural communities have experienced increased devastation by disasters such as drought, wildfire, and floods. The Northern Great Plains Regional Incubator for Drought Resiliency (NGP-RIDR) will tackle the challenges of resiliency to these disasters through the integration of big data from remote sensing, predictive models, in-situ sensor networks, and business workflows. Building on major congressional investments in advanced water monitoring infrastructure—such as the Upper Missouri River Basin Mesonet—and leveraging cutting-edge machine learning water balance models, NGP-RIDR seeks to advance drought assessment, prediction, and preparedness. The initiative will establish participatory frameworks for more consistent drought risk management across the region, develop data driven total water monitoring systems that incorporate non-stationarity, and create an inter-jurisdictional drought management plan to enhance drought preparedness and resource allocation. By transferring these advanced approaches and new capabilities to tribal nations, agencies, and businesses, NGP-RIDR aims to promote resilience, sustainability, and economic growth across the region’s critical food and fiber systems, while also addressing drought management and unlocking new commercial opportunities. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.