D-Risk: a decision-support webtool for improving drought risk management in irrigated agriculture

Drought constitutes a significant production and business risk in agriculture, particularly for those enterprises dependent on irrigation to deliver high quality continuous supplies of fresh produce to the retail sector. Whilst most farmers are well attuned to managing short term weather-related crop risks, they lack access to tools that can support medium-term decision-making and risk management strategies under conditions of increasing water scarcity and climate uncertainty. This paper describes D-Risk, an intuitive online webtool designed to help farming enterprises easily understand their existing and emergent drought and irrigation abstraction risks and thereby support more robust decision-making regarding future changes in crop planning and water resources infrastructure investment.