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Berkeley selected to host hydrology research center
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"The 20th century hydrology paradigm is inadequate in the face of the increased severity of water-related science questions facing the world,” said CEE professor Yoram Rubin in describing the need for the National Center for Hydrology Synthesis, to be centered at UC Berkeley.
GETTY IMAGES PHOTO
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How does global warming affect water supply in semi-arid regions? Can scientists develop a theory to help predict the onset and duration of droughts? What is the effect of a carbon emissions–constrained world on the hydrologic cycle?
These are some of the questions that scientists will be investigating at a new research center now taking shape on the Berkeley campus that will forge an updated vision for hydrologic science and water resource management.
Berkeley was chosen from 14 competing proposals to host the center, known as the National Center for Hydrology Synthesis (NCHS). An October 2005 start date is planned, pending selection of a state-of-the-art site near campus and securing funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Together with NCHS partner support, funding is expected to total nearly $25 million over the next five years.
Strongly supporting the effort were vice chancellor for research Beth Burnside, faculty and deans from engineering, natural resources, and physical sciences, and researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), a range of participants that reflects the center’s multidisciplinary appeal.
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CEE professor Yoram Rubin is designated director of the new National Center for Hydrology Synthesis (NCHS), a research center in development at Berkeley that will redefine hydrologic science and water resource management.
AARON WALBURG PHOTO
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“It is clearly documented that the 20th century hydrology paradigm is inadequate in the face of the increased number, severity, complexity, and scale of water-related science questions facing the world,” said CEE professor Yoram Rubin in describing the need for the center. An expert in hydrogeology who joined the Berkeley faculty in 1989, Rubin is the center’s designated director. NCHS director of operations will be Susan Hubbard, staff scientist and head of LBNL’s Environmental Remediation Program.
The center will provide a “think tank” atmosphere for international multidisciplinary research in hydrology, defined as the science of the Earth’s waters, their occurrence, distribution, properties, and environmental relations. Research will be global in scope and performed by working groups, postdoctoral fellows, and sabbatical visitors in mathematics, engineering, and the physical, life, information, and social sciences.
Key elements will include broad involvement of academia, policy makers, industry, and government, as well as public outreach to ensure that NCHS research meets the needs of the hydrology community.
The center is one of four pillars of HydroView, a project masterminded by the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI), formed in 2001 to advance hydrology science.
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