A workshop will be held in Silver Spring on October 10 and 11 to discuss National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) water cycle research activities and their relationship to the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) global water cycle research plan. This workshop aims to identify NOAA activities which support the USGCRP global water cycle initiative and to explore the feasibility of developing a broader NOAA water cycle program that will strengthen NOAA’s contributions to USGCRP and NOAA climate services.

The United States Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) has recently completed A Plan for a New Science Initiative on the Global Water Cycle. This plan calls for the federal government to launch major initiatives in three areas, namely:

1. To determine whether the global water cycle is intensifying and, if so, to what degree human activities are responsible,
2. To determine the deeper scientific understanding needed to substantially reduce the losses and costs associated with water cycle calamities such as droughts, floods, and coastal eutrophication, and incorporate this knowledge into prediction systems, and
3. To develop the scientifically based capacity to predict the effects of changes in land use, land cover and cryospheric processes on the cycling of water and associated geochemical constituents.

Clearly all of these initiatives have relevance for NOAA. In particular, the first and third initiatives are strongly related to the climate program while the second initiative is critical for advancing NOAA’s weather, climate and water services.

The USGCRP is in its first year of the global water cycle research initiative. Some USGCRP agencies are preparing new funding initiatives for OMB and some are already receiving new funding. An interagency co-ordination and management mechanism along with an interagency Global Water Cycle Program Office is being set up by the USGCRP agencies. NOAA is contributing to these developments through the GEWEX Americas Prediction Project (GAPP). The OGP/GAPP program is NOAA’s key contributing element to the USGCRP global water cycle program. However, there are other activities inside NOAA that are also relevant to the USGCRP plan. If considered and planned together these activities could be a major contribution to interagency efforts in water cycle research.

Workshop Goals:

1. Inventory current NOAA research and development activities relevant to the USGCRP global water cycle program, in terms of observations, process understanding, modeling, predictability studies, and oceanic and ecological studies.

2. Identify potential new research activities that are linked to the USGCRP water cycle priorities and also directly contribute to NOAA’s climate services initiative. The essential elements of the USGCRP water cycle initiatives are:

• improved climate predictions through predictability studies, climate model development and nested modeling;
• strengthening observational programs;
• coordinated field, remote-sensing, and modeling experiments;
• better linkages between research, forecast production and water resource managers.

3. Explore the feasibility of NOAA wide planning of water cycle research activities;

4. Discuss the mechanisms for transferring research into operations to improve water resource management and operational climate forecasts.

The workshop is intended for managers and scientists involved in water cycle research. The directors and chiefs of organisational units that conduct research or developmental activities related to the water cycle are encouraged to attend.

The full agenda for this workshop is being developed by the Workshop planning committee. Members of the committee include Dr. John Bates (OAR/ ETL), Dr. Jin Huang (NWS) and Rick Lawford (OAR/ OGP). When available the agenda will be forwarded to all individuals who have indicated their intention to attend.

The workshop is scheduled for Oct. 10,11, 2001 and will be held at SSMC3, Rm. 4527, Silver Spring, Maryland. Updates on the agenda will be provided as we proceed. It would be appreciated if you could let Dr. Jin Huang (Jin.Huang@noaa.gov) know if you and/or some of your staff plan to attend. If you have questions please contact Dr. Huang or Rick Lawford (lawford@ogp.noaa.gov).