To achieve a more comprehensive understanding of hydrology that embraces the full hydrologic cycle as well as the role of hydrology in related environmental and earth sciences, the hydrologic science community formed the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI). CUAHSI has prepared a science agenda that identifies the interfaces among traditional boundaries among the atmosphere, land surface, groundwater and surface-water subdisciplines as the most promising areas for research. Substantive progress will only be achieved with multidisciplinary approaches applied at larger spatial scales to obtain coherent data sets than have typically been done in the past. CUAHSI envisages four mutually supportive infrastructure elements to meet this goal: 1) a network of hydrologic observatories, 2) an information system, 3) a measurement technologies program, and 4) a hydrologic synthesis facility. This project requests funds to provide a core support for the development and management of these facilities as well as to initiate the observatories and synthesis facility. Because this scale of coordinated research has not been previously attempted by the hydrologic science community, we propose to begin with a 'paper prototype' of a single river basin (a hydrologic observatory) designed to address a small set of specific hypotheses carefully chosen to yield a data set that will provide a robust characterization of the basin. Thus a data set sufficient to answer important questions and broad enough to be useful for many studies will emerge. The prototype will identify both the scientific and economic synergies from coordinating research in a single river basin. The Neuse River has been chosen as the site for this prototype. The second proposed activity is to initiate a hydrologic synthesis facility, envisioned as a place where hydrologic scientists from various disciplines can come together conveniently and at low marginal cost to tackle central problems in the field. A workshop to design the facility and funding for an initial synthesis project, including a competition for its selection, are proposed. This project will permit hydrologic science to make fundamental advances by providing facilities with capabilities currently unavailable to the community. These activities have been chosen to provide the greatest return on investment to move hydrologic science to a new plane of understanding. The benefits to society of improved hydrologic understanding are manifold, including more reliable forecasting of conditions and wiser management of water resources.
