The Next Five Years: Renewal Proposal

CUAHSI is preparing a renewal proposal for consideration by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The proposal addresses the fundamental science in the recently released CUAHSI Science Plan, "Hydrology of a Dynamic Earth."

Synopsis

Based upon the recently completed science agenda and experience gained over the past 6 years, CUAHSI proposes to build on these accomplishments and, in this proposal, requests funding to continue operations for five years. The required infrastructure is divided into four mutually supportive projects: field facilities (observatories), instrumentation (Hydrologic Measurement Facility), informatics (Hydrologic Information System), and multi-disciplinary synthesis (National Center for Hydrologic Synthesis). These activities build the community's capacity to operate large-scale infrastructure as envisioned by the WATERS Network, as well as providing valuable services to the community and having intrinsic scientific merit. The major new initiatives are the development of a Community Hydrology Modeling Platform (CHyMP), which will assist in designing observatories and observatory networks, execution of community data campaigns as a test of the scientific value spatially intensive, coherent data collected as a community effort. In addition, CUAHSI proposes the establishment of a formal education and outreach program, and the development of user support services for software that is ready for release to the community. Biennial membership meetings will assess progress towards these goals.

You can download a copy of the latest draft of the Renewal Proposal. Your comments are welcome. Please email them by August 15 to exdir@cuahsi.org. Thank you.

Regional Meetings: Mark Your Calendars

CUAHSI has scheduled three Regional Meetings for this Fall, with additional meetings to be scheduled for Spring 2008. Meetings are open to all CUAHSI member universities. Attendance by all interested faculty is encouraged. Meetings will review progress on CUAHSI projects and solicit feedback on plans for CUAHSI and the WATERS Network. Presentations on related community initiatives such as the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), Critical Zone Exploration Network (CZEN), and Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System (CSDMS) are being solicited.

The three Fall meetings are:

• Friday, October 5 in Austin, Texas hosted by David Maidment (University of Texas).
• Friday, October 12 in Chicago, Illinois hosted by Praveen Kumar (University of Illinois).
• Friday, October 26 in Boise, Idaho hosted by James McNamara (Boise State University).

Detailed agendas and logistical information will be announced for each meeting as they becomes available.

Hydrologic Field Methods: Call for Papers

The Hydrologic Measurement Facility of the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Sciences, Inc. (CUAHSI) has proposed a Special Issue of Water Resources Research on Hydrologic Measurement Methods. The issue is intended to bring together research across hydrologic disciplines through three types of papers:

• Foundation papers - synthesis of the fundamentals and application of a method or set of related methods to hydrology;
• Methods and applications papers - articles that present methods that have been verified with sufficient data and rigor to be broadly and reliably applied by the water resources research community; and
• Emerging methods papers - that demonstrate early results of novel measurement methods or approaches.

To be included in the special issue, please submit before March 1, 2008 through the GEMS on-line submission system). Please see the WRR Measurement Methods Descriptions for a more complete description of the manuscript types and for detailed submission instructions.

Feel free to contact Ty Ferre (ty@hwr.arizona.edu) or John Selker (selkerj@engr.oregonstate.edu) either directly or through Susan Dobbie (Susan.Dobbie@oregonstate.edu) for further information.

CUAHSI Early Career Fellowships at Hydrologic Science Synthesis Groups

CUAHSI announces the inaugural round of funding to support travel expenses for young scientists to participate in research with Hydrologic Science Synthesis groups at the University of New Hampshire and the University of Illinois. The goals of this program are to enhance collaborations between these groups and the greater hydrologic science community and to provide early career scientists with an opportunity to gain experience in the area of synthesis research.

Four to six $5000.00 grants are available to young scientists in hydrology, surface earth systems, or realted fields to cover travel expenses to participate in the following projects:

• Water Cycle Dynamics in a Changing Environment: Advancing Hydrologic Science through Synthesis
• Humans Transforming the Water Cycle: Community-based Activities in Hydrologic Science

See the Notice of Opportunity for additional information.