Preliminary Review of the Draft Science, Education, and Design Strategy for the Water and Environmental Research Systems (WATERS) Network (2008) / Chapter Skim
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WATER AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH SYSTEMS NETWORK
WATER AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH SYSTEMS NETWORK
Pages 1-16
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From page 1... ...
Network as one possible initiative whereby NSF could provide the advances in the basic science needed to respond effectively to the challenge of managing water resources. The WATERS Network is one of several national observatory networks1 being planned by NSF designed to collect and integrate the necessary data over the appropriate spatial and temporal scales to help scientists, engineers, and managers better understand, model, and forecast environmental processes.
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, which evaluated the CLEANER science plan and identified potential research questions that the network might address. The current NRC committee, composed of experts in the fields of hydrologic and environmental engineering and science, coastal and marine science, computer science, and economics, has been charged to review and assess the adequacy of the conceptual design and planning process for the WATERS Network, to provide advice on collaborating with other federal agencies, and to comment on the operations and maintenance costs for the network (see Box 1 for the complete statement of task and Appendix A for committee member biographies)
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The committee also benefited from presentations and discussions at the two committee meetings involving NSF staff; members of the WATERS community and its 7 At the time the task statement was crafted and through the first committee meeting in June 2007, NSF planned to deliver two documents to the committee for review: the Conceptual Design Plan and the Integrated Science and Education Plan. The SEDS supplanted these documents.
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This review will include an assessment of the adequacy of the design plan relative to the stated mission and goals of the WATERS Network, the grand challenges it is being established to address, and the specific science questions and environmental drivers on which the design is based.
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Science Questions The committee was asked to review the conceptual design plan for WATERS and comment on the adequacy of the plan relative to "the stated mission and goals of the WATERS Network, the grand challenges it is being established to address, and the specific science questions and environmental drivers on which the design is based." According to the SEDS, "the goal of the WATERS Network is to understand and predict the multi-scale processes coupling water with Earth and human systems." Though no discrete mission was stated in the SEDS, the WATERS community envisions the network as "a bold environmental observatory initiative to transform research on the water environment through new infrastructure investments to enable investigations that cannot be done under the current single-investigator or collaborative projects." 5
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The draft SEDS does put forward three principal science questions (what the committee interpreted as "grand challenges;" see Box 2) but it does not present a finalized set of "specific science questions." Instead, the SEDS proposes many example research questions that the network might potentially address.
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The committee believes that the WATERS concept would be more convincing if the justification for the network rested on the science questions it seeks to address. The WATERS community should determine a set of important science questions and review current available data to determine whether the appropriate data exist to address those questions.
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One approach would be for the design team to identify one overarching question that is narrower in scope than the three principal science questions in the draft SEDS, and then articulate 3 to 5 major science themes that would emanate from this overarching question. If this is done effectively, a description of how the science themes could only be addressed by a national network of observatories should follow logically.
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How would the problems be addressed -- with different measurements, with nested data collection systems? The committee hopes that the revised SEDS document would include a much clearer discussion of how data sets obtained from across the spectrum of space-based platforms to high resolution in situ measurements would be used to address one or more of the general scaling problems.
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The WATERS planning team could go in one of two directions regarding social science as they proceed to revise the draft plan. They could make social science a more prominent focus and include a more robust team of social scientists that represent the set of skills needed for survey research and understanding behavioral responses, institutions, and incentives; or, the WATERS team could pare back the focus of the proposal and not attempt to address human behavior in an all encompassing manner.
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Other probes that are in the development stages can be used to answer compelling questions at some observatory sites, but not in a routine manner to monitor water quality. While the WATERS design team recognizes the need for such an approach it was not reflected in the SEDS where the application of undeveloped sensors was proposed (e.g., isotopic analyses, biological oxygen demand (BOD)
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In going forward it will be important to quickly move beyond vision statements of CI to actual design documents. The overall design approach of OOI and NEON is described in their design documents and it would be useful to structure the WATERS design documents to provide comparable organization, scope, and details.
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. A significant challenge for the WATERS design team will be to articulate a plan that transitions the current test bed and prototype activities into a continental-scale observatory network.
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The draft SEDS has elements in all of these categories. The ideas presented in the SEDS document appear to cover the key elements of an education and outreach strategy.
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The WATERS community should determine a set of important science questions and review the current available data to determine whether the appropriate data exist to address those questions. If existing data are not sufficient to address the science questions, is a continentalscale observatory network such as WATERS the best means to acquire that data?
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From page 16... ...
The signature activities described -- summer research opportunities for K-12 educators, various activities characterized as continuing education, and integrating research and education through novel technology such as virtual observatories -- are potential paths to success. For WATERS to move forward with the planning process and ultimately secure support from NSF, it is essential that the revised SEDS present compelling science questions, define the nature of the transformative science to be accomplished, and clearly describe the path to achieve the envisioned results.
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