Drought (Future) - Hazard Extent - DCRRA

This future drought hazard layer identifies areas where the 50-year return period 12-month Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) value (2041-2070, median of 25 global climate models assuming SSP5-8.5) exceeds the threshold for extreme drought (SPEI less than -2).

Climatic drought hazards refer to prolonged dry periods resulting in an imbalance in the water cycle. In BC, severe and frequent droughts typically occur in the interior valleys due to low precipitation (rainfall and snowmelt) and are accompanied by low streamflow. For this project, a metric for climatic drought was used based on the provincial scale. A climatic drought is characterised by the difference between precipitation (P) and potential evapotranspiration (PET). This future drought hazard layer identifies areas where the 50-year return period 12-month Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) value (2041-2070, median of 25 global climate models assuming SSP5-8.5) exceeds the threshold for extreme drought (SPEI < -2).

Limitations

The SPEI is intended to be a standardized index showing change in drought relative to the 1950 to 2014 reference period (Tam et al., 2023). The SPEI is not intended to show absolute future conditions of drought across BC. The resolution of input data and analysis outputs for drought hazard layers are coarse (100 km grid scale) and apply simplified criteria. Additional areas of BC may be subject to drought that are not captured by currently available data or selected thresholds..

Source

DCRRA Hazard Exposure Analysis Appendix A - Drought (2024)

Datasets available for download

• hazard_drought_futureFeature Layer

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• hazard_drought_future (Explore)HTML

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• BC HIT
• Climate
• DCRRA
• Drought
• ECCC
• Extreme
• Future
• Hazard
• Hazard Insights Tool
• Heat
• Heatwave
• Input
• Temperature

Additional Info

• Maturity Level 1 (54%)
• Maturity Level 2 (69%)
• Maturity Level 3 (44%)
• Maturity Level 4 (10%)
• Maturity Level 5 (0%)
• Maturity Level 6 (38%)

Field	Value
Last Updated	March 25, 2026, 01:46 (UTC)
Created	March 25, 2026, 01:46 (UTC)
Domain / Topic Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.
Title Title for the Dataset.	Drought (Future) - Hazard Extent - DCRRA
Description A description of the dataset.	This future drought hazard layer identifies areas where the 50-year return period 12-month Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) value (2041-2070, median of 25 global climate models assuming SSP5-8.5) exceeds the threshold for extreme drought (SPEI less than -2). Climatic drought hazards refer to prolonged dry periods resulting in an imbalance in the water cycle. In BC, severe and frequent droughts typically occur in the interior valleys due to low precipitation (rainfall and snowmelt) and are accompanied by low streamflow. For this project, a metric for climatic drought was used based on the provincial scale. A climatic drought is characterised by the difference between precipitation (P) and potential evapotranspiration (PET). This future drought hazard layer identifies areas where the 50-year return period 12-month Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) value (2041-2070, median of 25 global climate models assuming SSP5-8.5) exceeds the threshold for extreme drought (SPEI < -2). Limitations The SPEI is intended to be a standardized index showing change in drought relative to the 1950 to 2014 reference period (Tam et al., 2023). The SPEI is not intended to show absolute future conditions of drought across BC. The resolution of input data and analysis outputs for drought hazard layers are coarse (100 km grid scale) and apply simplified criteria. Additional areas of BC may be subject to drought that are not captured by currently available data or selected thresholds.. Source DCRRA Hazard Exposure Analysis Appendix A - Drought (2024)
Tags / Keywords Keywords/tags categorizing the dataset.	BC HIT Climate DCRRA Drought ECCC Extreme Future Hazard Hazard Insights Tool Heat Heatwave Input Temperature
Format (CSV, XLS, TXT, PDF, etc) File format of the dataset.
Dataset Size Dataset size in megabytes.	760.0
Metadata Identifier Metadata identifier – can be used as the unique identifier for catalogue entry
Published Date Published date of the dataset.	2024-06-28
Time Period Data Span (start date) Start date of the data in the dataset.
Time Period Data Span (end date) End date of time data in the dataset.
GeoSpatial Area Data Span A spatial region or named place the dataset covers.

Field	Value
Access category Type of access granted for the dataset (open, closed, service, etc).	public
License License used to access the dataset.	Licensed under Access Only . These data are Copyright © Province of British Columbia . All rights reserved. The EM GeoHUB and associated materials, including map applications ("Maps"), trade-marks and official marks (collectively, "Materials"), are owned or used under license by the Province of British Columbia ("Province") and are protected by copyright and trade-mark laws. Please see the Disclaimer for further details.The Province does not collect, use or disclose personal information through the ArcGIS Online website. Please be aware, however, that IP addresses are collected by Esri and are stored on Esri's servers located outside of Canada. For further information, including the purposes for which your IP address is collected, please see Esri's Privacy Policy at: https://www.esri.com/en-us/privacy/privacy-statements/privacy-statement . By accessing or using the EM GeoHUB, you consent, effective as of the date of such access or use, to Esri storing and accessing your IP address outside of Canada for the purposes described in Esri's Privacy Policy.
Limits on use Limits on use of data.
Location Location of the dataset.	https://bchazardinsightstool-bcgov03.hub.arcgis.com/datasets/bcgov03::drought-future-hazard-extent-dcrra
Data Service Data service for accessing a dataset.
Owner Owner of the dataset.	PX.DCRRA.Edit
Contact Point Who to contact regarding access?	EM GeoHub
Contact Point Email The email to contact regarding access?	https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/data/about-data-management/geobc
Publisher Publisher of the dataset.	EM GeoHub
Publisher Email Email of the publisher.
Author Author of the dataset.	PX.DCRRA.Edit
Author Email Email of the author.
Accessed At Date the data and metadata was accessed.	2026-02-20

Field	Value
Identifier Unique identifier for the dataset.	7c4a8f5dbe164ccdbc5b775379aa4bfe
Language Language(s) of the dataset	English
Link to dataset description A URL to an external document describing the dataset.	https://bchazardinsightstool-bcgov03.hub.arcgis.com/datasets/bcgov03::drought-future-hazard-extent-dcrra
Persistent Identifier Data is identified by a persistent identifier.
Globally Unique Identifier Data is identified by a persistent and globally unique identifier.
Contains data about individuals Does the data hold data about individuals?
Contains data about identifiable individuals Does the data hold identifiable data about individual?
Contains Indigenous Data Does the data hold data about Indigenous communities?
Portal Type Platform type of the source portal.

Field	Value
Version Version of the datatset	None
Source Source of the dataset.	None
Version notes Version notes about the dataset.
Is version of another dataset Link to dataset that it is a version of.
Other versions Link to datasets that are versions of it.
Provenance Text Provenance Text of the data.	EM GeoHub
Provenance URL Provenance URL of the data.
Temporal resolution Describes how granular the date/time data in the dataset is.
GeoSpatial resolution in meters Describes how granular (in meters) geospatial data is in the dataset.
GeoSpatial resolution (in regions) Describes how granular (in regions) geospatial data is in the dataset.

Field	Value
Indigenous Community Permission Who holds the Indigenous Community Permission. Who to contact regarding access to a dataset that has data about Indigenous communities.
Community Permission Community permission (who gave permission).
The Indigenous communities the dataset is about Indigenous communities from which data is derived.

Field	Value
Number of data rows If tabular dataset, total number of rows.	4
Number of data columns If tabular dataset, total number of unique columns.	6
Number of data cells If tabular dataset, total number of cells with data.	24
Number of data relations If RDF dataset, total number of triples.
Number of entities If RDF dataset, total number of entities.
Number of data properties If RDF dataset, total number of unique properties used by the triples.
Data quality Describes the quality of the data in the dataset.
Metric for data quality A metric used to measure the quality of the data, such as missing values or invalid formats.

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