Opportunities in the Hydrologic Sciences (1991) / Chapter Skim
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6. Scientific Priorities
6. Scientific Priorities
Pages 296-303
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From page 296... ...
Although the political process ultimately determines what gets funded, it is in everyone's best interest that this process have the benefit of knowledgeable scientific opinion. Scientists must learn to formulate and advocate research priorities in their separate scientific disciplines.
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From page 297... ...
The above criteria must be augmented with a set of premises: · It is not possible to make rational priority judgments among very specific research questions. For example, which is more important, the effects of chemistry and biology on soil properties, or how heat and mass flow control water seepage in frozen media?
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From page 298... ...
· Chemical and Biological Components of the Hydrologic Cycle In combination with components of the hydrologic cycle, aqueous geochemistry is the key to understanding many of the pathways of water through soil and rock, for revealing historical states having value in climate research, and for reconstructing the erosional history of continents. Together with the physics of flow in geologic media, aquatic chemistry and microbiology will reveal solute transformations, biogeochemical functioning, and the mechanisms for both contamination and purification of soils and water.
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From page 299... ...
Our knowledge of the time and space distributions of rainfall, soil moisture, ground water recharge, and evapotranspiration are remarkably inadequate, in part because historical data bases are point measurements from which we have attempted extrapolation to large-scale fields. Our knowledge of their variability, and of the sensitivity of local and regional climates to alterations in land surface properties, is especially poor.
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From page 300... ...
Finally, numerical models exist that are capable of integrating results from regional and global measurement programs and focusing issues for future experiments. · Coordinated Global-scale Observation of Water Reservoirs and the Fluxes of Water and Energy Regional- and continental-scale water resources forecasts and many issues of global change depend for their resolution on a detailed understanding of the state and variability of the global water balance.
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From page 301... ...
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From page 302... ...
. · Dissemination of Data from Coordinated Experiments Special integrated studies, such as HAPEX, FIFE, and GEWEX, that involve intensive data collection and investigation of the fluxes of water, energy, sediment, and various chemical species, produce highquality data sets that have value lasting far beyond the duration of the experiment.
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From page 303... ...
When the experiments are planned, the inclusion of a diverse array of studies should be an integral part of the plan. Undergraduate students of science should have experience with measurement of natural phenomena, preferably in field situations as well as in controlled laboratory settings.
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