Dear Friends of Water Science,

A workshop was held at NSF in Alexandria, VA last month on the topic of "Integrated Hydro-Terrestrial Modeling (IHTM): Development of a National Capability." Attendees included representatives from 11 Federal agencies (NASA, NOAA, NSF, USACOE, BOR, USGS, USDA, DOE, DHS, DOI and EPA) and from selected universities. Of the approximately 130 participants, about 12 were from academia. CUAHSI, through support from NSF, provided lunches to participants and provided travel support for academic colleagues. The conference was co-chaired by Dr. Tim Scheibe (DOE, PNNL), Dr. Harry Jenter (USGS) and Dr. Efi Foufoula-Georgiou (UC Irvine).   
 
The workshop began with a welcome from William Easterling, Assistant Director for the NSF Geosciences Directorate, followed by perspectives on operational needs, applied research and basic research related to an IHTM capability and a keynote address from Dr. Tim Petty, DOI Assistant Secretary for Water and Science. Most of the workshop was built around a series of breakout sessions. The first group of six breakouts focused on three motivating priority water challenges for development of a national IHTM capability. The challenges were chosen based on input from the agencies participating in the workshop as well as from the OSTP’s Subcommittee on Water Availability and Quality (SWAQ); those challenges included 1) Hypoxia, Nutrient Loading and Harmful Algal Blooms, 2) Western Water Availability and 3) Flooding and Extreme Weather-Related Water Hazards. The second group of six breakouts addressed the technological challenges of implementing an IHTM capability, and the third set breakouts addressed the organizational challenges associate with implementation of an IHTM capability across the federal and academic landscape. After a half day of synthesizing the breakout session results into brief report-out presentations, the meeting was capped-off with these presentations followed by final comments from Dr. Petty and a panel consisting of eight senior agency leaders discussing their perspectives on IHTM.
 
This workshop was designed to give each of the attendees a voice in the vision for an IHTM, regardless of their particular organization’s mission, needs, current investment in IHTM, experience with IHTM and existing inter-agency partnerships related to IHTM. The workshop was not a roll-out of a pre-established plan. As a consequence, the eighteen individual breakout sessions were creative, highly participatory and very well-attended. Each breakout created a collection of logic models pertaining to the subject of the breakout. The logic models from the breakouts, along with approximately 60 potential use cases for IHTM submitted by participants, will form the basis of a final workshop report, currently in preparation. The intent is to have this report available by Fall AGU this year where there will be a presentation on the workshop results. Despite this activity, there was no discussion of a budget initiative in 2020 by any of the agencies, nor was there an indication that IHTM will be proposed in the 2021 budget, although that cannot be discussed by the agencies until released in early 2020.
 
Dr. Foufoula-Georgiou will discuss the IHTM effort at CUAHSI’s Town Hall at AGU (December 13, 12:30 – 1:30 p.m.—mark your calendars). CUAHSI staff will remain engaged in the IHTM activities, advocating for strong and continued involvement by the academic community; we have been asked to help prepare the data management section of the workshop report. I also have offered the IHTM team the opportunity to host a CUAHSI cyberseminar series in spring 2020. 
 
With thanks to Harry Jenter, who provide much of this content,
Jerad

 

CUAHSI's Data Down Low 
 

 

Applications now open! 
Teach in the Fall 2020 Virtual University



  Are you currently employed by a U.S. university? If so, you're eligible to teach in the 2020 CUAHSI Virtual University! Keep reading to find out more.

CUAHSI has organized inter-university online courses to enhance the depth and breadth of graduate course offerings at universities across the nation, increase the rate of uptake of new research and facilitate networking among our hydrologic community!

Expectations: It is anticipated that participating faculty will teach the course as part of their regular teaching responsibilities at their home institutions, and they are not compensated by CUAHSI for their participation. Courses will run from September to November with each module being conducted for 4 weeks. 

Eligibility: Faculty currently employed by a U.S. university are eligible to participate in the Virtual University. 

Application Deadline: November 1, 2019 (applications received after this date will only be considered if space remains.)

Interested? Apply here!

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