CUAHSI

MARK WILLIAMS

• Incoming chair, Cryosphere focus group, American Geophysical Union (AGU)

• Co-I, initial CUAHSI planning grant• Co-chair, Hydrologic Observatories

committee• Co-I, NWT LTER• Participant, NEON Standards Workshop

CUAHSI

HYDROLOGY AND ECOLOGY

• Hydrology: community-driven discipline with little presence in DC

• Ecology: strong presence in DC but lack of community involvement

• NEON a vehicle to promote synergism between the two disciplines

CUAHSI

GOALS TONIGHT

• CUAHSI as an example of community-based initiative that ecologists can follow

• NEON and HO’s are compatible and complementary

CUAHSI

Science

Hydrologicobservatories

Measurementtechnology

Informationsystems

Research infrastructure for the advancement of hydrologic science:

Planning highlights & update

Need for research infrastructure– Nature of hydrologic research?– Role of infrastructure?– Current infrastructure?– Limitations of current

infrastructure?DOES THIS SOUND LIKE NEON?

Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science

CUAHSI

CUAHSI

Research in hydrologic sciences is geographically distributed, due in part to the Earth’s heterogeneous climate

CUAHSI

Research in hydrologic sciences addresses a diversity of questions, aimed at understanding

water & chemical fluxes & reservoirs

CUAHSI

Research in hydrologic sciences depends heavily on measurements

CUAHSI

Current infrastructure

Research watersheds

ARS watersheds

Measurement networks Field laboratories

Special equipment

CUAHSI

Natural observatories: What’s new?

Will enable addressing science questions at much larger scales than current ARS or USGS research catchments & larger than nearly all of NSF’s LTER’sOne factor in locating the observatories will be

nesting of & synergy with other natural laboratories

Will involve coordinated physical, chemical & biological measurements over the long termThis degree of coordination & long-term

commitment is absent from nearly all existing natural laboratories

CUAHSI

Research Platform

Geology

Multiscale Catchment Models of Flow and

Transport

Catchment Infrastructure

Scaling Theories for Hydrological Flow and

Transport

MeteorologyPhysics

Ecology and Biogeo-

chemistry

Applied Maths and Statistics

Hypothesis-driven Experiments

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Partnerships with Federal Agencies

• Experimental watersheds have been operated and maintained by a number of Federal Agencies.

• Build on experience acquired through time-consuming trial & error

CUAHSI

MAGNET ROLE OF LTHOs• LTHOs will act as a “magnet” to

attract a broad array of additional scientific activities addressing hydrological sciences

• LTHOs will provide a research platform for the hydrologic community to increases its interactions with cognate disciplines such as atmospheric sciences, ecology, biogeochemistry

• LTHOs will find applications in

the work of federal, state, and local agencies that manage environmental resources

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The road ahead

Community involvement is critical• Diversity of ideas & issues• Build infrastructure & research together

Initial science plan is essential• Sound science & definite initiatives• Snowbird, UT; 18-20 August 02

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BOTTOMS-UP APPROACH

Grass roots approach

Each of you need to lobby your buddies, congress, cats, dogs

Anything can happen if we all work together!

CUAHSI

UNITED WE STAND

• Hydrologists and ecologists need to speak with one voice

• ESA, ASLO, AGU and other organizations should be in the vanguard of promoting environmental science

• DEB and GeoSciences at NSF need to cooperate

CUAHSI

Current science planning process

Builds on many prior efforts:• Water, Energy, Biota (WEB) working group• USGCRP Water Cycle Study Group• NAS Basic Research Opportunities in Earth

Sciences (BROES report)• NAS Committee on Hydrologic Sciences

(CoHS)• NAS Grand Challenges report

Broadly soliciting science & implementation input

NSF needs strong science justification for planning & implementing initiatives

CUAHSI

Elements of draft science plan

• Natural observatories• Information systems• Measurement technology• Education & outreach• Applications & knowledge transfer

Characteristics: • Long term• Serve individual investigators• Accountable