Introduction
Summary
The FEWS Tools are a set of agroclimatic analysis tools developed by member organizations of FEWS NET, including the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the Climate Hazards Center (CHC) at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). Designed for analysis of rainfall, temperature, and evapotranspiration data, these tools offer a range of functions crucial for climate analysis in agricultural development.
The latest version, FEWS Tools 3.2.0, is available as a plugin for QGIS and has been tested for compatibility with QGIS version 3.34 LTR (see Intro to QGIS for basic QGIS concepts). These user-friendly tools can be used to:
Analyze large quantities of climate data in raster format.
Create visual representations of climate-data summaries.
Calculate seasonal anomalies.
Blend climate station values with satellite data to create improved datasets.
Calculate seasonal trends.
Facilitate drought analysis.
Compare groups of years within a time series.
Calculate agriculture water balance using the function for the Water Requirement Satisfaction Index (WRSI).
Access installation instructions for new and current users here.
Using the Manual
This manual is organized into 11 chapters and presents examples and exercises to help you understand the different applications of the FEWS tools analysis functions.
Chapter 1: Overview provides a brief tour of the various functions available in FEWS Tools.
Chapter 2: Settings provides details on setting up the program and downloading data.
Chapter 3: Data Management provides a review of the different data types used, data availability and more.
Chapter 4: Climatological Analysis explains how to calculate statistics, trends, and SPI, among other functions, for a set period (e.g., dekad, month, season) using GeoCLIIM functionality.
Chapter 5: Rainfall Summaries shows how to calculate seasonal totals, averages, and anomalies.
Chapter 6: Climate Composites describes seasonal analysis among a group or two groups of non-consecutive years within a time series.
Chapter 7: Contour Tool explains how to visualize spatial rainfall distribution based on contour lines.
Chapter 8: Calculate Difference in Averages shows a way of estimating trends by comparing changes in averages between two periods within a time series.
Chapter 9: BASIICS explains the process of blending station and raster data to create improved climate fields.
Chapter 10: Extract Statistics explains how to create spatial summaries of historical data for a single or a set of polygons.
Chapter 11: GeoWRSI Analysis Functions explains the implementation of the Water Requirements Satisfaction Index (WRSI)
Appendix A: Intro to QGIS provides links to basic QGIS instructions for viewing, editing, and creating shapefiles and rasters.
Appendix B: Installation provides guidance on installing the FEWS Tools plugin as a new user, and instructions for installing a new version of the plugin as a current user.
For GeoCLIM updates and video tutorials, go to https://chc.ucsb.edu/tools/geoclim.