Major Water Research Initiative

The WATERS Network Project Office (WNPO) is requesting community input and participation as we near completion of our Phase 1 planning activities and plan a proposal to the National Science Foundation (NSF) for Phase 2 planning activities, which will primarily focus on a national network design study. WNPO is an NSF-funded project to lead the community planning for a national network of observatories and experimental facilities to understand and predict the multi-scale processes coupling water and waterborne constituents with Earth and human systems. Scientists and engineers from three research communities (environmental engineering and science, hydrologic and related Earth sciences, and social, behavioral and economic
science) are working together to secure Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC) funding from NSF to build this network.
Further background on the WATERS Network and plans for Phase 2 can be found in the background information document at http://www.watersnet.org/docs/RFI-Fnl.pdf.
 
WNPO is pleased to announce the following opportunities for the community to participate in the remainder of Phase 1 and the planning for Phase 2:

- A draft Science, Education, and Design Strategy (SEDS) document will be released in late February at http://watersnet.org/ . Comments on the document can be submitted through the Web site or in person at the community workshop (see below), and will be used to finalize the document, which will be reviewed by the National Research Council in Summer 2008.
- A notice of opportunity for a Chief Scientist/Engineer to serve as Principal Investigator for Phase 2 of the WATERS Network Project Office can be accessed at http://www.watersnet.org/docs/NoO-Chf-Sci.pdf , with applications due February 17, 2008.
- A request for information (RFI) can be accessed at http://www.watersnet.org/docs/RFI-Fnl.pdf , requesting information on resources (data sets, models, tools) and network-wide analyses to inform a proposed national network design study during Phase 2 of the WATERS Network Project Office. Responses are requested no later than April 7, 2008.

- A community workshop will be held on March 24 and 25, 2008, at the Hilton Arlington in Arlington, VA, to discuss the SEDS document and plans for Phase 2. Further details, including registration and an opportunity to request travel funds, will be coming soon at http://www.watersnet.org/workshop-20080324.html. Registration, hotel reservations, and travel fund request deadlines will be due approximately February 24, 2008.

To ensure notification of release of the SEDS document in late February and further information on the community workshop, please subscribe to the WATERS Network listserv by sending an email to majordomo@ncsa.uiuc.edu with the following in the email body:

subscribe waters <youremail@somewhere> (e.g., subscribe waters <johndoe@home.com>).

We look forward to engaging with you on these exciting opportunities.

Sincerely,
The WATERS Network Conceptual Design Team:

Barbara Minsker, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Principal Investigator, minsker@uiuc.edu Roger Bales, University of California-Merced, Senior Investigator, rbales@ucmerced.edu John Braden, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Senior Investigator, jbb@uiuc.edu Susan Brantley, Pennsylvania State University, Senior Investigator, brantley@essc.psu.edu Martha Conklin, University of California Merced, Senior Investigator, mconklin@ucmerced.edu Elizabeth Eschenbach, Humboldt State University, Senior Investigator, eae1@humboldt.edu Jeffrey Glass, Duke University, Senior Investigator, jeff.glass@duke.edu Charles Haas, Drexel University, Co-Principal Investigator, haas@drexel.edu Thomas Harmon, University of California Merced, Senior Investigator, tharmon@ucmerced.edu Richard Hooper, CUAHSI, Co-Principal Investigator, rhooper@cuahsi.org James Myers, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Senior Investigator, jimmyers@ncsa.uiuc.edu Chris Paola, University of Minnesota, Senior Investigator, cpaola@umn.edu Jerald Schnoor, University of Iowa, Co-Principal Investigator, jschnoor@engineering.uiowa.edu David Tarboton, Utah State University, Co-Principal Investigator, david.tarboton@usu.edu

and Jami Montgomery, Executive Director of WNPO, jamimont@ncsa.uiuc.edu