U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey The National Research Program: Overview and Data preservation challenge Don Campbell NRP Central Branch

Since the birth of NRP in 1957, scientists in 6 interdependent subdisciplines have worked to provide research leadership and vision for: - Water Mission Area - USGS - DOI - the scientific community - the public Luna B. Leopold Chief Hydraulic Engineer

John D. Bredehoeft, the first Deputy Associate Chief Hydrologist for Research spent ~80% of his work time coordinating NRP with 2 major intentions: 1. Activities by NRP and the WSCs would be complementary (consistent with Leopold’s vision), and 2. NRP would not follow the research model of the academia but provide a “different kind of science” with the capacity to generate a concerted, sustained effort to understand complex hydrologic systems (e.g., San Francisco Bay studies, Toxic Substances Hydrology sites, and NAWQA collaborations). Cape Cod Toxics SF Bay Toxics / PES NAWQA Hg in Stream Ecosystems Williamette Basin

Water-related research– Future Directions Understanding water serves many USGS missions: Water Energy & Minerals Environmental Health Climate & Land Use Ecosystems Hazards Core Science New Methods New TheoryNew Data NRP Products: Characterization Tools Modeling Tools

USGS Hydrologic Research Scientists in 48 Water Science Centers - Both RGE and non-RGE scientists - Supported by appropriated and reimbursable funds - Focus on addressing cooperator needs - Studies usually 1-3 year duration National Research Program (NRP) scientists (in Reston, Denver / Boulder, Menlo Park) - Supported mainly by appropriated funds - Focus on basic hydrologic processes - Serve resource management needs of science centers - Long-term studies, methods & model development - Contribute to long-term research directions - Teach USGS courses

Water research scientists, Ecology Geomorphology/Sediment Groundwater Chemistry Groundwater Hydrology Surface Water Chemistry Surface Water Hydrology

Ecology (J. Kuwabara, L. Miller) Groundwater Chemistry (W. Evans, I. Cozzarelli) Surface Water Chemistry (C. Rostad, C. Kendall) Groundwater Hydrology (M. Hill, D. Stonestrom) Surface Water Hydrology (L. Hay, M. Dettinger) Geomorphology & Sediment Transport (C. Hupp) Water Research Advisors, NRP Management Jerad Bales and Earl Greene, Office of Chief Scientist Pierre Glynn, Reston, NRP- EB Don Campbell, Denver, NRP- CB Cindy Brown (acting), Menlo Park, NRP- WB

SURFACE WATER CHEMISTRY DISCIPLINE October 2011 Analytical methods development and application Contaminant occurrence and fate Organic chemistry, natural & synthetic compounds Inorganic geochemistry, metals, processes Nutrient source, transport, and cycling Watershed processes, biogeochemistry and fluxes Climate change and carbon fluxes Budget2011-SWC

Project descriptions Bibliographies Modeling software Links The NRP web site

Types of information  Field notes  Handwritten notebooks  Photos, videos  Field data  Physical and biological surveys  Pysical, chemical, biological measurements with field instruments (discrete and continuous).  Laboratory data  Lab chemical and isotopic analyses of field samples  Lab experiments

Types of information (cont.)  Model development  Model code  Model input, results

Cost of producing USGS-series reports. Many scientists retiring. Metadata needs to characterize continually evolving methods and models. Data quality indicators, esp. for older data. Need simple, cost-effective tools for persistent and reliable data preservation. Data Preservation Challenges:

Need to add value to the science to motivate scientists to do this. Data can be readily discovered on web searches, indexed on other web pages. Data in easily usable format. Metadata is complete. Has to be easy and cheap to get it in there! Attributes for data preservation

Questions and discussion?