Notes
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Specific U.S. agency plans for participation in GAPP have not yet been formulated. |
2. |
NASA is currently in the process of drafting a plan for its future Global Water and Energy Cycle research activities. |
3. |
NSF's Geosciences Directorate is in the process of creating a long-range plan for its activities through 2010, termed GEO-2000. A draft of the GEO-2000 vision statement can be found at: http://www.geo.nsf.gov/adgeo/geo2000/. The objective of GEO-2000 is to ''identify exciting prospects for major advances in understanding the interactions among the full suite of Earth system components.'' As part of NSF's planning, a workshop was convened in Albuquerque, NM (January 31-February 1, 1999) to provide input to the formulation of the hydrologic component of GEO-2000. A summary of the meeting (http://cires.colorado.edu/hydrology/) states that: ". . . Researchers have not been able to quantify many fluxes within the water and companion cycles because they lacked tools to collect and analyze data that capture the complexity and scales at which hydrologic systems operate. The problem is particularly critical where water moves through a phase change or from one medium to another at the medium to large watershed scale where multiple disciplines must work together. New observing capabilities (radar, satellite images, isotope tracers, etc.) and new mathematical tools (fractals, random perturbations of dynamical systems, etc.) provide needed technology, but hydrology lacks an integrated observational system. Educational programs do not provide adequate training for this new era. Example issues are 1) measuring precipitation on, evapotranspiration from, recharge into, and moisture storage within watershed reservoirs where studies are stymied by a lack of mass balances for water, sediments, solutes, etc.; and 2) quantifying the heterogeneous properties of soils and aquifers from geologic understanding for water supply which is threatened by pollution plumes. Watershed-scale data can be used to link disparate space-time scales and couple physical, chemical, and biological states. Scientists can be educated to probe these integrated data sets with advanced diagnostics, computational experiments, and analyses of process, pattern, and probability. |
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funded, comprehensive research program whose central element is extramural, merit-based, competitively-awarded research grants; (iv) apply research-based knowledge expeditiously through a national network of centers, with specific attention to grand challenges and their specific problems; (v) establish and sustain National Observing Systems (including present systems), study areas, and tools and methods for continuous assessment of the nation's water systems; (vi) facilitate Collaboration and Integration among members of the national partnership; (vii) sustain a coordinated national program for Education and Communication for publics and professionals on the value of the nation's water resources and need for their prudent stewardship; and (viii) conduct systematic and comprehensive Assessment and Evaluation of the results of the overall Initiative. The initiative is being developed through a National Partnership among federal, state, and other public agencies; private sector users; the public; and the nation's universities and colleges. The Initiative has been endorsed by the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, the Universities Council on Water Resources, and the National Institute for Water Resources. Positive and helpful discussions have been held with senior federal officials. Discussions with private and public sector leaders and workshops are planned for 1999." |
5. |
The rationale for the establishment of a U.S. GEWEX Program Office and collateral infrastructure with a U.S. CLIVAR Program Office is discussed in a previous report of this panel: NRC, 1998a. GEWEX-CLIVAR: Coordination of U.S. Activities. National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 22 pp. This report states that: "There is no interagency mechanism within the United States to ensure that this type of coupling [between GEWEX and CLIVAR] will occur, nor is there one to ensure that the individual GEWEX activities within the United States are coordinated. A high degree of coordination between GEWEX- and CLIVAR-related activities would help ensure that the advances in one program directly feed into the other, minimize duplication of effort, and promote the most efficient avenues for progress. Despite the somewhat higher infrastructural burden that may come with enhanced coordination, the reality is that programs such as GEWEX and CLIVAR cannot work collaterally without having collateral infrastructures. One practicable vehicle for bringing about the necessary inter- and intra-program coupling may be the establishment of a U.S. GEWEX Program Office that parallels and is closely integrated with the one being discussed for CLIVAR." Following the publication of this report, this set of issues was discussed at length at the March 18–19, 1999 NRC GEWEX Panel meeting in Irvine, California. For a summary of the discussion at this meeting, see: http://nationalacademies.org/basc. |