The U.S. Geological Survey is always watching the country’s streams and rivers, monitoring their changing levels and flows with the national streamgaging network. The network was first established in the late 1800s by the Survey’s second director, John Wesley Powell, to appraise water resources for irrigation. The 7,000 streamgaging stations established since then have provided data for monitoring water supplies, floods, and even the plants and animals that depend on rivers.

But the network contains gaps in coverage and technology and in the kinds of information it can deliver, says Robert M. Hirsch, chief hydrologist of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). In the April issue of Geotimes, the monthly earth-science news magazine published by the American Geological Institute, Hirsch describes present and future demands for the streamgaging network. “The changing world in which we live, with its ever-shifting weather patterns and varied landscapes and watersheds, presents a challenge to all of us,” Hirsch says. Data supplied by the streamgaging network is crucial for managing the country’s natural resources and meeting those challenges.

The Geotimes April issue offers an annual perspective on the relationships between government and science and, specifically, about the effects of government policies on earth science and earth scientists. The articles are selected and edited in cooperation with the American Geological Institute’s Government Affairs Program.

Visit Geotimes on the Web to read news about recent earth-science research, updates on individual scientists, and job opportunities in the earth sciences. For more information about the stories featured in the April issue, contact Kristina Bartlett, (703) 379-2480 or keb@agiweb.org.

Other stories in the April issue of Geotimes include:
 
Rebuilding Geoscience in Canada: Life After Major Budget Reductions

When its science funding was drastically cut, the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) asked tough questions about its programs: Were they efficient and affordable? Could the private sector do the same work better? The GSC's former chief scientist reports on the survey’s restructuring process and a new spirit of cooperation between the federal and provincial surveys, industry, and academia.

By James M. Franklin, former chief scientist for the Geological Survey of Canada

Geoscience and Geopolitics:

Resource exploration, management, and sustainability are issues that increasingly require global approaches to problem-solving. An international resource-management expert challenges geoscientists in government, industry, and academia to play more active and cooperative roles in addressing such critical problems as nuclear-waste disposal, greenhouse-gas emissions, and water shortages.

By Peter J. Cook, executive director of the Australian Petroleum Cooperative Research Centre

Prediction: A Process, Not a Product

While science underpins the prediction process that guides many government decisions, neither good science nor good predictions can independently resolve complex problems related to natural hazards, resource management, and the environment. The key to better decision-making may be cost-effective, realistic alternatives to prediction.

By Daniel Sarewitz, a senior research scholar at Columbia University and coordinator of the Science, Policy, and Outcomes Project; Roger Pielke Jr., a researcher with the National Center for Atmospheric Research; and Radford Byerly Jr., a physicist who has influenced science policy through writing and government service
 

Other Resources:  For more information on the USGS streamgauging network, see the USGS report to Congress at <http://water.usgs.gov/streamgaging/>.  Visit the Geological Survey of Canada’s web site at <http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/gsc/gschp.html>.  The National Center for Atmospheric Research, a research arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is at <http://www.ncar.ucar.edu>.