MEMORANDUM FOR: Dr. Al Beeton

Chairman, NOAA Science Advisory Board

FROM: Roan Conrad

Director, Office of Sustainable Development

and Intergovernmental Affairs, and

Tom Laughlin

Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary

for International Affairs

SUBJECT: SAB Action Item

At its November 6-8, 2001 meeting in Tucson, the NOAA Science Advisory
Board (SAB) set forth the following action item:

"The Office of Sustainable Development and Intergovernmental Affairs
(SDIA), in collaboration with the Office of International Affairs (IA),
will prepare a background paper on NOAA and water resources management,
and specifically on pertinent issues on how NOAA might like the SAB to
address them. This paper will be sent to the SAB prior to its March 2001
meeting."

This action item was in response to a presentation on "Opportunities in
Water Science and Technology," presented by Matt Borgia (SDIA), which
highlighted what we perceive as a lack of organization and a NOAA-wide
strategic viewpoint on water resource issues.

In just the past week, President Bush has established a Cabinet-level
panel (including Commerce Secretary Don Evans) to help resolve the
tug-of-war among fishermen, farmers, and environmentalists in Oregon's
Klamath River Basin over water. A *New York Times* editorial
highlighting the intensification of the northeastern U.S. drought opined
that we are without answers as to its cause. These are representative of
the almost daily actions and reports that we hear related to the growing
water crisis. The problems associated with water are multiplied over and
over in other parts of the world \-- in some cases with catastrophic
impacts on the lives of people and on the future of this essential
life-giving natural resource.

We have long felt that NOAA research can make a significant contribution
to helping resolve the global water crisis. Our hydrology and climate
research is already doing that. But, we feel that NOAA needs to go
further.

Building on the recommendations of the last meeting of the SAB, we
strongly encourage the SAB to take a further look at water research in
other NOAA program areas. [We recommend that the SAB call for the
establishment of a formal NOAA-wide water resource coordinating
mechanism and for the development of an integrated water resource
research plan and strategy for the agency.]{.underline}

We view this as an important step in helping to better organizing NOAA's
response to various international efforts dealing with water, such as
the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development, and maximizing the
unique capabilities and expertise that resides within this agency to
address very real and critical water issues.

The endorsement of the SAB would add additional impetus toward getting
this process underway within NOAA and highlighting for NOAA management
and the Department of Commerce, what the international community has
already recognized ... that this is a important endeavor that demands
our attention.

Attachments:

1.  N.Y. TIMES Editorial

2.  White Paper in response to SAB action

3.  Report: NOAA Leadership and Involvement in the International Water
    Crisis

cc: S. Rayder

M. Uhart

Subject: NYTimes.com Article: The Worsening Drought

The Worsening Drought

March 2, 2002

As the Northeastern drought intensifies - warm dry days

followed by cold dry days - jurisdictions around the region

have begun to make plans for an official drought emergency,

with mandatory restrictions in water use, even as they

fervently hope for wet weather. Except for the cold and the

leafless trees, the region\'s streams and reservoirs have

the look of a hot, dry summer about them, and it is still

only the beginning of March.

Even if rain appears this weekend, meteorologists believe

that we will pull out of this drought slowly, too slowly to

refill the reservoirs by early summer. Everyone hopes that

spring, usually a very wet season, will bring normal

rainfall. But nothing has been normal, weather-wise, in

quite some time.

A prolonged drought is a little like hard economic times,

if only because it makes bad decisions and wasted

opportunities so noticeable. Suddenly, the sources of water

that are no longer available thanks to groundwater

pollution or ill-considered development loom large in the

overall water-supply picture. In a severe drought, they

might have made a difference. The same is true for patterns

of water use that wouldn\'t seem profligate in years of

normal moisture but that suddenly seem extravagant now.

These days, every drought is read against the background of

global warming. There is as yet no incontrovertible

evidence of a connection between the two; what we do know

is that, as with global warming, we are not without answers

if we are willing to face the problem. One, obviously, is

conservation. After a drought warning was issued last

month, New Yorkers cut the city\'s water consumption by 30

million gallons a day.

Meanwhile, a sustained spring dousing, a few weeks of the

soaking weather that makes everyone complain, would go a

long way toward taking our minds off these worrying

matters. It would certainly ease, for the moment, the

worries of city planners, who have reopened wells in Queens

and have been making contingency plans in the event of

severe drought. But even if spring is wet and summer

wetter, the long-range betting is on more dry times to

come. Conservation should become a habit with us,

conservation and a far more longsighted and imaginative use

of an increasingly precious resource.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/02/opinion/\_02SAT3.html?ex=1016875500&ei=1&en=55f405f09490a362

Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company

NOAA and Water Resource Management

Globally, water and the management of water resources is taking on
increased significance. There is little doubt or disagreement in the
international community that water is one of, if not the next major
resource issue on the world horizon. The significance of water cannot be
overstated -- it is the basis of so many resource and economic decisions
that affect human society, health, food, the environment, and security.

The problems of lack of water and poor water resource management have
contributed to major regional droughts and famine in Africa. Floods have
displaced millions in Asia, Africa, and the Indian sub-continent.
Biological and chemical pollution of freshwater systems is presenting
increasing health problems. Trans-border water conflicts, which have for
centuries contributed to regional destabilization, continue to do so in
the mid-east and in Africa. In today's world these problems take on
added significance because they represent potential threats to our
national security.

In the U.S. we are experiencing our own water resource problems:
declining and polluted aquifers, degraded habitats and ecosystems,
extreme events of droughts and floods, and growing allocation conflicts
among farmers, fishermen, and industry, over access to water. The impact
of this is significant in terms of its direct and indirect (i.e.,
subsidies) costs to society. Moreover, there is the long-term cost to
future generations and a resultant impact on our quality of life.

The attached study prepared last September for NOAA's Office of
Sustainable Development spells out in great detail the nature of the
growing global water crisis and what the international community is
trying to do to address it. Four major contributing factors are
highlighted: the impact of the global rate of expansion of irrigated
land for agricultural use, which is threatening **water supplies**;
**pollution** of water resources, which is fast becoming one of the
biggest emerging water problems for the developed and industrial world;
the global **decline in** **ecosystems**, which threaten our economic,
social, and environmental security; and water related **extreme
events**, which have devastating impacts on human lives and economic
infrastructure. All of these areas of concern fall within NOAA's mission
and in each of these, research will play a crucial role in crafting
solutions and identifying future policy and program directions.

**The U.S. Response**

The U.S. government has just recently begun to respond to the emerging
global water crisis, and has taken a number of steps to address domestic
and water resource management issues. Congress has enacted legislation
addressing water related issues involving: wetlands, coastal management,
ecosystems and habitat protection, endangered species, and private
ownership of water resources. The Clean Water Act in 1998, as an
example, set national goals for protecting public health, restoring and
protecting wetlands and watersheds, controlling pollution and runoff,
and expanding citizen and community involvement in the stewardship of
this vital natural resource.

Internationally, the U.S. has been an active participant in a number of
fora dealing with water issues, including: the ongoing Global Programme
of Action (GPA) for the Protection of the Marine Environment from
Land-based Activities; the Convention to Combat Desertification, the
UNEP Global International Waters Assessment (GIWA), and various World
Water Conferences (The Hague 2000, Bonn, 2001, and Japan 2003). Water is
now becoming a top foreign policy issue for the State Department and for
USAID. It is also the topic of a number of Federal interagency groups,
including a State Department working group on international and
transboundary water issues.

Water is also one of the five sectoral (water, energy, forests, oceans,
and science for sustainable development) USG priorities for the upcoming
World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), which is to be held this
September in Johannesburg. It is a key component in other U.S.
deliverables being developed for the WSSD, dealing with the Caribbean
and the subject of Global Information for Sustainable Development. The
State Department is looking to NOAA to play a key role in helping define
the U.S. scientific and program contribution to the international
response for dealing with the water crisis. While the final outcome of
the WSSD is difficult to predict, it is fair to say at this point, that
the WSSD process will likely result in new attention being focused on
U.S. agency programs and budgets needed to support U.S. commitments.

**NOAA's Role in Water**

NOAA's Office of International Affairs has had the lead responsibility
for coordinating NOAA's input to these various international efforts,
working closely with the Office of Sustainable Development, and with
representatives from each of the NOAA Line Offices. NOAA scientists have
provided substantive input to these deliberations, and in a number of
cases are actually participating in water related program activities
funded by USAID and the State Department.

NOAA's water related products and services are highly sought after by
both government and private sector users. Those in particular demand
include the full suite of NOAA weather and climate forecasts and
predictions, as well as flood and drought forecasts. NOAA products and
services dealing with hazard mitigation from natural and man-made events
and approaches for protecting the viability of habitats, ecosystems, and
living marine resources also provide data and guidelines for resource
managers and planners. In almost every case, it is NOAA science and
research that is the basis for these important products and services.

The primary research focus related to water in NOAA has been in the area
of hydrology -- developing improved and expanded capability, products
and services in the areas of precipitation modeling and forecasting and
drought monitoring. These efforts have tremendous potential global
application in aiding countries facing critical water resource issues.
Additionally, NOAA has also supported significant research in climate
related modeling development, including participation in the National
Water Cycle Initiative. These efforts were presented and discussed in
great detail at the last SAB meeting.

Recognizing NOAA's scientific contribution in the above areas, the SAB
recommended at its last meeting a series of specific steps that the
agency should take to strengthen its role, including: assuming a
leadership role in setting the national agenda in hydrologic science and
services; taking a leadership role in the international community in the
design an optimal mix of observations and modeling; institutionalizing
the modernization of weather and climate hydrologic science and services
across NOAA; working with academic partners to see that the most
advanced scientific models and data assimilation strategies are
implemented; and engaging the social science community in this effort.

But, there is more that can and should be done. Looking at NOAA as a
whole there is currently no coordinated or comprehensive approach to
water research -- no priorities, no sense of what is being done or needs
to be done, no articulated vision of how NOAA fits into the global water
picture or even the into the domestic picture. The programs,
capabilities, and scientific and technical expertise exist within NOAA
to contribute to the solution of a number of water related problems, but
they have yet to be marshaled in a way that will achieve their full
potential.

NOAA could benefit tremendously from a more focused policy level
overview of NOAA's water program activities, coupled with a review of
the contribution that science and research can make to enhancing NOAA's
products and services [across the board]{.underline}. Beyond weather and
climate, beyond hydrology and water cycle research, what should NOAA be
doing in research programs as it relates to water and critical habitat
for marine and anadromous fisheries? What are the implications of
changes in the availability of water to coastal and estuarine
management? How are ecosystems impacted by extreme events, such as
floods? What are the impacts of coastal habitat alteration and hazard
mitigation (i.e., dams, dredging, dune construction) on coastal water
systems and the living resources they support? How can remote sensing
and other approaches to monitoring the water environment provide better
for data and understanding? How does all of this relate to the
achievement of sustainable coastal communities? In short, we need a more
integrated approach to NOAA's water research activities -- one that
looks for and explores the connections between NOAA science and what it
might be able to contribute to more informed decision-making and
stewardship of this vital natural resource.

The SAB has correctly pointed out that NOAA does not have a role to play
in many of the proposed solutions to the global water problem -- we are
not involved in seeking out new approaches for more efficient
irrigation, or finding ways to increase water storage capacity, or
reforming the way water is managed or priced. But, we do have a
considerable base of scientific expertise to contribute to the
development of solutions to the global water crisis. Our contribution in
predictive research related to precipitation, climate change, and
extreme events is well recognized -- our research and predictive
capability on the effects of changes in water availability and quality
on coastal and marine ecosystems and fisheries could also play an
important part in helping define ways to more efficiently and
effectively utilize this precious resource.

**Recommendation**

Building on the recommendations of the last meeting of the SAB meeting,
NOAA's IA and SDIA offices recommend that the SAB review and evaluate
the attached report and recommendations and call for the establishment
of a formal NOAA-wide water resource coordinating mechanism and the
development of an integrated water resource plan and strategy for the
agency.