During the last decade,
USGCRP-supported research has increased the world's scientific knowledge
of global environmental change. Research supported by the USGCRP is laying
the foundation for a viable, fully functioning U.S. Global Environmental
Change Information Service supported by a multidisciplinary scientific
research community. This service would assist society by providing information
on how a changing global environment (i.e., physical, biological, and human
systems) affects regions within the United States.
For example,
in the last five years, USGCRP-supported research has assisted in the production
and distribution of rainfall and temperature forecasts on timescales ranging
from three to five days up to seasonal and interannual timescales. The
challenge for the next decade is to expand global environmental change
information to all timescales – days, seasonal, interannual, decadal, centennial,
and millennial forecasts – and to include information on climate, ecosystems,
carbon, water, and so forth.
The U.S. Global Environmental Change Information Service will integrate
research, assessment, and prediction activities with the more traditional
distribution of scientific information to provide:
-
Interface between producers
of scientific information and decisionmakers/clients (e.g., Federal agencies,
national security offices at the State Department, the intelligence community,
the National Security Council, state and local governments, and the public)
to ensure useful information is developed and distributed for the benefit
of all.
-
Creation of environmental
change information products for use by decisionmakers in affected sectors,
including agriculture, human health, water resources, and energy.
-
Integration of currently
existing elements of an environmental information service, including: national
assessment programs; global change management applications and information
activities; global change data and information activities; and the Global
Change Research Information Office (GCRIO).
|
