The 91°”ÍűÊÓÆ” (UVM)—in collaboration with 28 universities and institutions—is poised to advance its status as a prominent institution in hydrological research.

This new initiative was made possible through the tireless efforts of Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., with transformative support of up to $25 million over the next five years from the federal government. It establishes the Cooperative Institute for Research to Operations in Hydrology (CIROH), a national consortium of science and services to provide actionable water resources intelligence to improve a national water model and flood forecasting.

“I am pleased to see NOAA’s increased commitment to addressing our nation’s water-related challenges,” said Leahy, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee. “It is entirely fitting that the 91°”ÍűÊÓÆ” was selected as part of the consortium, given its proven track record of studying and improving water quality. The Cooperative Institute will enable scientists around the country to better understand the water cycle and help us to observe and predict it, which can save lives and protect property from extreme weather events.”

CIROH will work closely with two federal organizations—the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Water Center and the recently announced U.S. Geological Survey Hydrologic Instrumentation Facility—allowing for highly productive collaboration between CIROH’s cooperative members and other federal agency scientists in pursuit of supporting four broad themes:

  • Water resources prediction capabilities.
  • Community water resources modeling.
  • Hydroinformatics.
  • Application of social, economic, and behavioral science to water resources prediction.

Researchers at UVM will collaborate with other partners in the CIROH initiative to advance NOAA’s capabilities in the four themes, particularly community water resources modelling and its application to social, economic, and behavioral sciences. Flood forecasting, for example, is more than just predicting where water will go, according to UVM’s William (Breck) Bowden. Bowden is the Robert and Genevieve Patrick Professor in Watershed Science and Planning in UVM’s Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources and has coordinated UVM’s contribution to the CIROH initiative.

“When you have a flood, there's a lot more than just water that gets moved around. There's sediment and there are pollutants, toxins, and nutrients that get moved around with that water,” Bowden said. “We see an opportunity to connect this national water model flood forecasting system to models that would also predict where nutrients and pollutants would go, how they would be transformed in transport and to provide this information in a way that's going to be more useful to communities to respond to future flood threats. UVM excels in this sort of integrated, multi-disciplinary research.”

Beyond flood forecasting, UVM researchers are also studying how harmful agal blooms (HABs)—colonies of algae in freshwater growing out of control—can affect Lake Champlain, Vermont tourism, coastal property values, and quality of life. One project for CIROH would enable community stakeholders to access real-time HABs early warnings at daily, weekly, and seasonal lead times, allowing those stakeholders to enact responsive policy to protect waterways and the communities who depend on them.

The CIROH initiative at UVM will also have educational and workforce development components, training the next generation of scientists, engineers, planners, and practitioners to develop better prediction tools and employ them in decision-making. The Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrological Science, Inc. (CUAHSI), of which UVM is a member institution, will take a leading role.

“In addition to training our own cohort of graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, UVM will leverage its 20-year relationship with CUAHSI, as a member institution, to advance innovative opportunities to recruit, train, and diversify the workforce,” said Beverley Wemple, UVM professor and chair of Geography, who also chairs CUAHSI’s Education and Outreach Committee.

“Researching and understanding water quality and modelling—its sustainability and its impact on communities at every level—is crucial work and a large undertaking,” said UVM Vice President for Research Kirk Dombrowski. “I’m excited for UVM to be a part of this new cooperative institute that will improve the national water model, and in the process, improve life across the U.S. and right here in Vermont.”

“UVM’s work with CIROH builds on a research foundation laid down by more than a decade of NSF EPSCOR support and many other projects brought to Vermont by Senator Patrick Leahy,” Dombrowski added. “UVM’s involvement in CIROH will solidify our standing as a leading research university and promote exceptional research growth in environment and sustainability in the coming years.”

Headquartered at the University of Alabama Water Institute (AWI), CIROH consists of academic institutions, non-profit organizations, and government and industry partners across the United States and Canada.

The 20 academic institutions that are CIROH’s consortium members include: Brigham Young University; Coastal Carolina University; Colorado School of Mines; Pennsylvania State University; Stevens Institute of Technology; Tuskegee University; The University of Alabama in Huntsville; University of Arizona; University of California, Davis; University of California, San Diego; Scripps Institution of Oceanography; University of Hawaii at Mānoa; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; University of Iowa; University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; University of Saskatchewan; University of South Carolina; University of Utah; 91°”ÍűÊÓÆ”; and Utah State University.

Consortium partners include: Dauphin Island Sea Lab; New Mexico State University; Baron Services Inc.; Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrological Science Inc.; Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System; Jupiter Intelligence; Oak Ridge National Laboratory; and RTI International.