Committee on Hydrologic Science

National Academy Of Sciences, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

9986796 Parker The National Research Council (NRC) is continuing the work of the committee on Hydrologic Sciences (COHS). The Committee's charge, broadly stated, is to conduct studies in the hydrologic sciences. Such studies will identify research needs and provide scientific advice on the hydrologic aspects of multi-disciplinary U.S. national programs and U.S. contributions to international programs related to climate and water cycle research. The initial focus of the committee's work was on the role of hydrology in the climate system and the implications of climate and land over change for the hydrologic system. Formed in late 1998, the Committee met four times between February 1999 and January 2000. Its first priority was to develop a report assessing the hydrologic component of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP). The report titled Hydrologic Science Priorities for the US Global Change Research Program: An Initial Assessment was published and briefed to the sponsoring agencies in 1999. In summary the report identifies two key research priorities that could significantly contribute to the USGCRP plan: 1) predictability and variability of regional and global water cycles, and 2) coupling of hydrologic systems and ecosystems and ecosystems through chemical cycles. The first priority concerns understanding sources of variability and limits to prediction. The second is focused on the integrative nature of terrestrial hydrology and the substantive role of ecosystems in exchange between land and atmosphere. During work on the first report several scientific challenges became evident that require more in-depth consideration. Plans are currently being made to discuss these scientific challenges with the broader community than the small COHS membership through a series of workshops. As a first step COHS members are presently drafting white papers that will define the scopes of inquires and lay out issues to be explored in this format. It is intended that these white papers will guide workshop deliberations toward reports that will distill the workshop contributions into a coherent set of conclusions and recommendations. Three such workshops are planned over the next five to ten months. The topics relate to: 1) science at the frontier of integrated hydrological and ecological sciences, 2) groundwater fluxes across interfaces, specifically the challenge of estimating groundwater recharge and discharge across scales, and 3) predictability of regional and global hydrologic systems and opportunities that might be exploited due to advances in computation.