HR: 1340h
AN: H13A-0959    [Abstracts]
TI: Emerging Technologies for Integrating Multi-Scale Observations of the Hydrologic Cycle
AU: * Logan, W S
EM: wlogan@nas.edu
AF: National Research Council, 500 5th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001, United States
AU: Potter, K W
EM: kwpotter@wisc.edu
AF: University of Wisconsin, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Madison, WI 53706, United States
AU: Wood, E F
EM: efwood@princeton.edu
AF: Princeton University, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton, NJ 08544, United States
AB: The results are presented of a recent National Research Council study on examining the potential for integrating spaceborne observations with complementary airborne and ground-based observations to gain holistic understanding of hydrologic and related biogeochemical and ecological processes and to help support water and related land-resource management. The study was motivated by the interrelated challenges of population growth, global climate change, and regional changes in land use and land management that will increasingly stress water resources around the world. Meeting these challenges will require significant improvement in our management of water resources, which in turn will require improvements in our capacity to understand and quantify the hydrologic cycle and its interactions with the natural and built environment. Recent and potential future technological innovations in sensors (in-situ, airborne, and space-borne) and sensor networks, cyber-infrastructure, data assimilation, modeling, and decision-support tools offer unprecedented opportunities to improve our capacity to observe, understand, and manage hydrologic systems. The committee investigated a number of aspects to turning this potential into a reality. These included development and field deployment of land-based chemical and biological sensors; the role of airborne remote sensing; interagency gaps between the steps of sensor development, demonstration, and operational deployment; the coordination of federal responsibilities for measurement, monitoring and modeling; and getting the new information to those who can use it. A variety of case studies were used to illustrate the needs and opportunities for new measurement capacity, including hydrologic monitoring in the Everglades, water quantity and quality in the Southern High Plains, malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa, hydroclimatic research in the Arctic, hydrologic extremes and water quality in the Neuse River watershed, and mountain hydrology in the western U.S. The committee was chaired by Kenneth W. Potter and vice-chaired by Eric F. Wood. Additional committee members were Roger C. Bales, Lawrence E. Band, Elfatih A.B. Eltahir, Anthony W. England, James S. Famiglietti, Konstantine P. Georgakakos, Dina L. Lopez, Daniel P. Loucks, Patricia A. Maurice, Leal A. Mertes, William K. Michener, and Bridget R. Scanlon. The study and its parent entity, the Committee on Hydrologic Science, were funded by NASA, NSF, USACE, NOAA, NRC, and EPA.
UR: http://dels.nas.edu/wstb
DE: 1804 Catchment
DE: 1836 Hydrological cycles and budgets (1218, 1655)
DE: 1839 Hydrologic scaling
DE: 1855 Remote sensing (1640)
DE: 1876 Water budgets
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting