HR: 11:20h
AN: U32A-05 INVITED    [Abstracts]
TI: Global and Regional Hydrologic Observations: Looking Back and Ahead
AU: * Gleick, P H
EM: pgleick@pipeline.com
AF: Pacific Institute, 654 13th Street, Oakland, CA 94612, United States
AB: Water resources are central to all aspects of global change; yet we have learned over the past several decades that our ability to understand critical processes and set effective policy depends on our ability to observe and interpret natural hydrologic processes at a wide range of temporal and spatial scales. Until key hydrologic processes and parameters were introduced into climate models, their ability to produce valuable insights was limited. Until long-term historical data, including paleoclimatic data, on precipitation and runoff were collected, water managers and policymakers were unable to make effective decisions about system design and operation; indeed important policy mistakes were made in the absence of this information. Yet important gaps still remain. This talk will review the past century of hydrologic observations in the context of what we've learned, what gaps remain, and what we still need to know in order to manage freshwater resources sustainably and effectively.
UR: http://www.pacinst.org
DE: 1630 Impacts of global change (1225)
DE: 1655 Water cycles (1836)
DE: 1699 General or miscellaneous
DE: 1807 Climate impacts
DE: 1834 Human impacts
SC: Union [U]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting