Global Water System Project - Open Science Conference

University Of New Hampshire, Durham NH

Investigators

Abstract

Vorosmarty 0341788 The Global Water System Project (GWSP) is part a new Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP) consolidated under the Global Environmental Change Programs (GECPs). The overall mission of the Project is to articulate the role of humans in changing the character of global water cycle, its associated biogeochemical cycles and biological components, and to address the societal feedbacks arising from these changes. The effort is interdisciplinary and synthetic in nature, and fully global in domain. While it is grounded in science, the GWSP is highly policy-relevant and for this reason is uniting experts in the physical, biogeochemical, biological, and human dimensions of this issue. This proposal seeks NSF funding to support travel and per diem expenses for scientists attending the first Global Water System Open Science Conference (OSC), scheduled for 7-9 October 2003 in Portsmouth, NH. The Open Science Conference is an important benchmark in the overall development of the GWSP, following several well-focused scoping meetings over the last two years. The OSC represents a culmination of these earlier gatherings, but now brings together a much wider cross-section of the community, with approximately 120 researchers, policy-makers and agency representatives expected to attend. The specific goals of the First GWSP Open Science Conference are to: (1) Judge our current capacity to systematically address the issues of global change and water from an interdisciplinary perspective and to capitalize on the strengths of IGBP, WCRP, IHDP and DIVERITAS; (2) Identify critical gaps in our knowledge of the global water system; (3) Critique and enrich the GWSP Scientific Framework Document which represents an evolving blueprint for the Project; (4) Design new activities and pilot projects within the context of GWSP, in particular, linking GECP and outside collaborations; (5) Build a GWSP community, i.e. involve scientists and water managers and decision makers from a range of disciplines, institutes and regions, and, (6) Publish a brief article on the GWSP, summarizing the principal Workshop findings in Nature or Science (Policy Forum Piece) and/or AGU Eos Transactions. Partial support already has been approved through NASA's Terrestrial Hydrology Program, NOAA Office of Global Program's GAPP, and IGBP. This request is for an NSF contribution to support either US or foreign participants.