National Academies Press: OpenBook
« Previous: 3. Measurement and Data Strategies
Suggested Citation:"4. Applications and Knowledge Transfer." National Research Council. 1999. Hydrologic Science Priorities for the U.S. Global Change Research Program: An Initial Assessment. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9659.
×

Page 25

4—
Applications and Knowledge Transfer

Water cycle issues affect all segments of society in all parts of the world. Everyone has a stake in the climate, in water resources, in the ecosystem, and in the economic implications of changes in the amount and distribution of fresh water on Earth. Scientific research in hydrology must have close links with societal and stakeholder needs, or applications; it must also have a vigorous knowledge-transfer effort that addresses kindergarten through university education, public outreach, and transfer of research results into practice.

Human population growth has resulted in heavy demands on the quantity and quality of water resources worldwide. The sustainability of these water resources in the twenty-first century will depend on the intelligent management of water resources systems under a more variable (and possibly warmer) future climate. The development of improved management strategies and viable interventions to meet these challenges will entail unprecedented coordination and integration across a broad range of research disciplines and segments of society.

Applications and User Integration

The increasing emphasis of the USGCRP on integrated assessment of the regional impacts of global change, including impacts on water resources, is fostering participatory, interactive research involving researchers, decision-makers, resource users, educators, and others who need more and better information about climate and its impacts. USGCRP is also supporting efforts to improve climate forecasting and the use of climate forecasts to manage water, fisheries, forests, crops, and range lands at the regional and local levels.

The term "regional assessment" is used to describe the collection, interpretation, evaluation, and communication of information of relevance to decision-makers, resource managers, and other individuals interested in a specific geographic location. Such assessments are "integrated" in several ways: (1) an end-to-end integration, which links understanding of ocean-atmosphere processes to regional impacts and policy responses, (2) an interdisciplinary integration, which brings together natural and social scientists, (3) the integration of scales of analysis from the local to the global and from short to long time scales, and (4) the integration of university and government research agendas with private sector concerns and public interests.

Suggested Citation:"4. Applications and Knowledge Transfer." National Research Council. 1999. Hydrologic Science Priorities for the U.S. Global Change Research Program: An Initial Assessment. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9659.
×

Page 26

dialog with stakeholders has shown that in nearly all regions of the United States, there is a strong demand for additional climate information and particularly for how climate changes will affect water availability, quality, and demand. This dialog has also revealed critical research needs in hydrologic science that are necessary to meet this need. Increased attention to the research topics in Chapter 2 is supported by the assessment activities to date, and their is a clear need to continue this sort of formal assessment to guide the effectiveness and applications of hydrologic research.

Education and Knowledge Transfer

Greater hydrologic literacy facilitates transfer of hydrologic information from research to application. Promoting greater literacy includes educating decision-makers, the public and K-12 students in order to support informed public decisions about water issues that society will face in coming decades. New approaches in undergraduate and graduate education that transcend the traditional focus on hydrologic applications are needed to educate a generation of scientists and engineers who can develop and apply advances in hydrologic science (NRC, 1991).

The hydrologic science community should adopt a stronger sense of responsibility for delivering timely and relevant scientific tools (e.g., instruments, models, and procedures) to the operational community to meet societal needs. In turn the operational community should break the isolation that has caused lags in incorporating advances in hydrologic science in operational procedures. Effective two-way knowledge transfer between researchers and the many public agencies and private sector individuals who work with hydrology-related issues is clearly needed.

Suggested Citation:"4. Applications and Knowledge Transfer." National Research Council. 1999. Hydrologic Science Priorities for the U.S. Global Change Research Program: An Initial Assessment. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9659.
×
Page 25
Suggested Citation:"4. Applications and Knowledge Transfer." National Research Council. 1999. Hydrologic Science Priorities for the U.S. Global Change Research Program: An Initial Assessment. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9659.
×
Page 26
Next: 5. Conclusions and Recommendations »
Hydrologic Science Priorities for the U.S. Global Change Research Program: An Initial Assessment Get This Book
×
Buy Paperback | $47.00 Buy Ebook | $37.99
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF

The availability of fresh water is potentially one of the most pervasive crises of the coming century. Water-related decisions will determine the future of major ecosystems, the health of regional economies, and the political stability of nations. A vigorous program of research in hydrologic sciences can provide the basis for sound water management at local, regional, national, and international levels.

The Committee on Hydrologic Science was established by the National Research Council in 1999 to identify priorities for hydrologic science that will ensure its vitality as a scientific discipline in service of societal needs. This charge will be performed principally through a series of studies that provide scientific advice on the hydrologic aspects of national program and U.S. hydrologic contributions to international programs.

This first report contains a preliminary assessment of the hydrologic science content of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP). Because this is a short and focused report, little effort is spent to reaffirm the established and successful elements of the USGCRP. In fact, the Committee generally endorses the findings of the National Research Council (NRC) report Global Environmental Change: Research Pathways for the Next Decade (NRC, 1998a; the so-called Pathways report) in this respect. Instead the attention here is directed toward the most critical missing hydrologic science elements in the FY2000 USGCRP. This brings the focus to the terrestrial component of the water cycle. The integrative nature of terrestrial hydrology could significantly strengthen the USGCRP.

  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    Switch between the Original Pages, where you can read the report as it appeared in print, and Text Pages for the web version, where you can highlight and search the text.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  9. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!