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 Hydrologic observatories Measurement technology Information systems 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

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’s One factor in locating the observatories will be nesting of & synergy with other natural laboratories Will involve coordinated physical, chemical & biological measurements over the long term This 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 Meteorology Physics Ecology and Biogeo- chemistry Applied Maths and Statistics Hypothesis-driven Experiments

CUAHSI 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

CUAHSI 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; August 02

CUAHSI 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