Observational Strategies

Water science has long relied on a spectrum of observations from the laboratory, the field plot, the hillslope, the aquifer, and the experimental catchment to test theory. The need to develop more comprehensive predictive capabilities now requires comparing observations across field sites, and scaling observations to regional and global extent. Such comparisons have been challenging to do systematically because they require coordination at a level above a project managed by an individual scientist. CUAHSI can provide the infrastructure to meet this challenge.

• Catchment Comparison Exercise 2010—How much water do we have? How accessible is it? How will it change in response to climate variation, human development patterns, and economic activities? Is the current water resources infrastructure adequate to maintain an adequate supply of water? If not, how must it be changed? Answering these questions is a central challenge for hydrologic science.
• CUAHSI Data Federation—Publish your data with a CUAHSI-HIS Server and register it with the CUAHSI-HIS Central Network Registry. It will then be available in federated search engines just like NWIS and STORET.
• NSF funded observatories
  • National Critical Zone Observatory Program (CZO)—Operating at the watershed scale, Critical Zone Observatories are natural laboratories for investigating the processes that occur at and near the Earth's surface and that are affected by fresh water. These interconnected processes impact everything from the production of soil to the evolution of biosystems.
  • The Long Term Ecological Research (LTER)—a collaborative effort involving more than 1800 scientists and students investigating ecological processes over long temporal and broad spatial scales.
• Other agencies
  • Water Resources of the United States (USGS)—The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) collects information needed to understand the Nation's water resources, and provides access to water data, publications, and maps, as well as to recent water projects and events.
  • Agricultural Research Service (ARS-USDA)—ARS conducts research to develop and transfer solutions to agricultural problems of high national priority and provide information access and dissemination.
• The WEBB Program—Research in Small Watersheds - The U.S. Geological Survey initiated the Water, Energy, and Biogeochemical Budgets (WEBB) program in 1991 to understand the processes controlling water, energy, and biogeochemical fluxes over a range of temporal and spatial scales and to understand the interactions of these processes, including the effect of atmospheric and climatic variables.
• University of California's Natural Reserve System—a network of protected natural areas throughout California that supports university level teaching, research, and public service. The mission of the Natural Reserve System is to contribute to the understanding and wise management of the earth. Environmental education, scientific research of national significance, public outreach, and grant opportunities are all available at the 35 Nature Reserves throughout California. These 35 sites help protect natural areas, provide undisturbed environments for students to learn, and databases of advanced research. The Natural Reserve System also awards research grants to graduate students looking to do research at the sites.">
• Hydrologic Observatory Prospectus List—an archival listing
• Standing Committee on Observations