Waters Network’s Potential To Transform Environmental Engineering Education

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Abstract NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract WATERS Network’s Potential to Transform Environmental Engineering Education Abstract The WATERS Network (WATer and Environmental Research Systems Network) will be an integrated real-time distributed observing system which will enable academic and government scientists, engineers, educators, and practitioners to advance effective management of our nation’s water resources by understanding human interactions with water and the natural and built environment. WATERS will provide easily accessible real time environmental data as well as analysis tools to engineers, scientists, educators, K- graduate students and policymakers so they can better understand how water quantity, quality and related components of the hydrologic cycle are impacted by natural and human influences. The WATERS strategic plan will be completed by July 2007 and requires constituent input. This paper describes the draft Conceptual Design and the Education Plan of WATERS Network. This paper will highlight the potential impact of WATERS on undergraduate and graduate environmental engineering education in order to elicit input from the environmental engineering education community on how WATERS Network could better meet the future needs of undergraduate and graduate students and educators. More information can be found at www.watersnet.org. Overview With support of the Geosciences and Engineering Directorates at the National Science Foundation (NSF) the WATERS Project Office, a joint initiative of the Collaborative Large- scale Engineering Analysis Network for Environmental Research (CLEANER) project1 and the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Sciences, Inc. (CUAHSI)2, is developing a strategic plan for the WATer and Environmental Research Systems (WATERS) Network. The WATERS Network aims to transform and advance the scientific and engineering knowledge base by developing a collaborative scientific exploration and engineering analysis network that will transform our scientific understanding of how water quantity, quality, and related earth system processes are affected by natural and human-induced changes to the environment. WATERS will allow environmental engineers, scientists and other professionals to advance the scientific understanding of human impacts on water resources and improve and inform the management of environmental issues1. NSF has funded 11 WATERS Network test bed project grants that focus on sensors and deployment of sensor networks; development of new modeling tools; and development of cyberinfrastructure, especially as it relates to enabling models and making sensor data accessible. In two years, additional testbedding opportunities are expected to further develop technology and determine the best path forward for building the WATERS Network. The WATERS Project Office is also meeting with other NSF environmental observatory programs (e.g., National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON)3, Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI)4 and governmental monitoring agencies to coordinate program efforts and develop partnerships to