For more information on this Town Hall Meeting on The Hydrologic Cycle
and its Role in Arctic and Global Environmental Change being held at the
Fall AGU Meeting next week, please contact Charles Vorosmarty at:
charles.vorosmarty [at] unh.edu
Guidelines for abstract submission or information about other
meetings/sessions taking place during the AGU Fall Meeting from 10-14
December 2001 can be found at the AGU web site at:
Town Hall Meeting on The Hydrologic Cycle and its Role in Arctic
and Global Environmental Change
San Francisco, CA
Thursday, 13 December 2001 6:30pm - 8:30pm Room 131, Moscone Center
In September 2000, thirty-three scientists representing the physical,
chemical, and biological disciplines met in a workshop in Santa Barbara,
CA to identify the critical research gaps and formulate a strategy to
address the research needs related to arctic hydrology. Key challenges
were associated with: (a) a sparse and declining observational network,
(b) lack of understanding of the basic hydrological processes operating
across the pan-Arctic, and (c) absences of cross-disciplinary synthesis.
These gaps demonstrate an urgent need to reformulate the manner in which
arctic hydrological research is funded and executed. Implementation of
the recommended actions will require a dedicated research program to
support arctic hydrological synthesis studies. Such a program does not
now exist, yet has been called for as a component of the U.S. Global
Change Research Program's initiative on the water cycle. To support this
new science, members of the scientific community have recommended that
NSF invest in the development of a pan-Arctic Community-wide
Hydrological Analysis and Monitoring Program (Arctic-CHAMP) to provide a
framework for integration studies of the pan-arctic water cycle and to
articulate the role of freshwater in terrestrial ecosystems,
biogeochemical, biogeophysical, ocean, climate, and human dynamics. The
primary aim of Arctic-CHAMP is to catalyze and coordinate
interdisciplinary research with the goal of constructing a holistic
understanding of arctic hydrology through integration of routine
observations, process-based field studies, and integrative modeling. The
contributions of an Arctic-CHAMP toward articulating the diverse
physical, biological, and human vulnerabilities to a changing climate
provide an important impetus for international cooperation in wisely
managing this critical part of the earth system. The goal of this
meeting is to inform the research community of this recommended program
and to solicit input on the scope and execution of the effort.
For more information, contact Charles Vorosmarty at:
charles.vorosmarty [at] unh.edu