National Academies Press: OpenBook
« Previous: Topic IV How Can Advances in Techniques for the Accurate Analysis of Ancient Flood Events Aid Estimation of Future Flood Magnitudes and Frequency, and Understanding of the Generative Processes for Extreme Flood Phenomena?
Suggested Citation:"Concluding Session." National Research Council. 2009. Research and Applications Needs in Flood Hydrology Science: A Summary of the October 15, 2008 Workshop of the Planning Committee on Hydrologic Science. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12606.
×
Page 16
Suggested Citation:"Concluding Session." National Research Council. 2009. Research and Applications Needs in Flood Hydrology Science: A Summary of the October 15, 2008 Workshop of the Planning Committee on Hydrologic Science. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12606.
×
Page 17

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

Concluding Session The workshop wrapped up with a summary session to identify next steps for COHS and others to pur- sue issues regarding flood extremes and their estimation as well as themes for future committee activities. The participants discussed the recent escalation of flood damages and an increasing awareness of the po- tential effects of climate change on the hydrologic cycle as they were the sounding call for this workshop. An underlying concern among the participants is whether the historical record remains the correct basis for determining current flood risk estimation—i.e., is stationarity ‘dead’? There was discussion on the efforts by the National Weather Service to update rainfall design curves and general discussion on how probable maximum precipitation estimates and flood frequency curves could be updated. Topics for future activities articulated by participants included (A) Research to operations in hy- drology. Can the current state of practice be used to help determine how to update current operational methods that might reflect changes in precipitation or flood characteristics? What new science is ready to apply to the estimation of extreme floods and their risks—such as operations research, optimization, hy- drologic modeling, two-dimensional models, etc.? (B) Improved assessment of hydrologic data. In discussing the role of hydrologic data as it relates to flood estimation, there were a number of suggestions on how data can be better utilized, which included (i) reanalysis of existing hydrologic datasets and de- termining societal implications of the flood risks, (ii) exploring new programs to collect national pa- leoflood data that would allow improved estimation of very large floods, and (iii) the deployment rapid- response flood teams for data collection. It was suggested that these would lead to possible improve- ments in collecting and utilizing flood data. (C) The water-energy nexus. It was expressed that the link- age between water and energy was under appreciated and a number of important issues lay at the intersec- tion between the energy and water sectors. This led to the following issues: What are the potential im- pacts of climate change on energy production such as the sitting of nuclear power plants that results in issues such as the supply of cooling water and corresponding regulatory issues? What are the implica- tions of renewable energy subsidies on water demand? How are the feasibilities of various water treat- ment processes affected by energy availability and cost? Are there hydrologic controls that are not being considered in some of these new proposed projects (e.g., biofuels, nuclear reactors, clean coal, and oil shales) that may constrain their development? How will probable maximum precipitation updates affect FERC relicensing? (D) Water resources decision-making and planning under uncertainty. It was expressed that this topic (water resources decision-making and planning under uncertainty) needs to in- clude uncertainty related to climate change and natural variability, as well as sampling uncertainty related to network design. (E) Hydrologic aspects of climate services. There was a final discussion around the concept of a national climate service, with thoughts about its potential scope and design. A national cli- mate service was viewed as being analogous to the National Weather Service, but it was unclear to the 16

Concluding Session 17 participants what products it would produce (e.g. weekly or seasonal forecasts?) or whether it would con- tain a private sector component? Overall, the participants' discussion provided insights to the workshop theme on flood research, and expanded the discussion to include general hydrologic issues that may lead to future workshops. Many participants appeared to leave the workshop not only stimulated by the event, but also eager to explore answers in the context of their own professional responsibilities.

Next: References »
Research and Applications Needs in Flood Hydrology Science: A Summary of the October 15, 2008 Workshop of the Planning Committee on Hydrologic Science Get This Book
×
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF
  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. ×

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

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

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

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    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!