IAHS is an international association for hydrological sciences established in 1922, having over 5000 individual members around the world. As a science association IAHS is engaged in various activities to enable science to serve society. Predictions in Ungauged Basins (PUB) is the most recent initiative of the IAHS, a celebrated policy-relevant science initiative that started in 2003 and produced a significant output in terms of community building and scientific deliverables. PUB is ending in 2012. A summary book will be published and PUB results will be presented during the IAHS 90th birthday meeting that will take place in Delft, during October 22-24, 2012.
The success of PUB witnesses the leading role that IAHS science initiatives play for hydrologists all over the world and therefore suggests the opportunity for IAHS to keep this leading role by proposing a new initiative to be started in 2013, during the IAHS General Assembly to be held in Goteborg. In fact, the IUGG General Assembly that took place in Melbourne during 27 June – 8 July 2011 hosted a very effective debate on a potential new scientific initiative to take IAHS into the future. The expectation was that it should be similar to PUB. The above debate involved a large across-section of the IAHS officers and members. As a result, the IAHS Bureau deliberated and decided to create a new Task Force (TF), with the mandate to suggest a focus, title and the details for the new initiative. The Bureau suggested that the TF should be composed of “younger” scientists (ideally in their 30s and 40s). The TF is expected to report to the IAHS Bureau, which will take a final decision on the nature of the new initiative. The TF will operate for up to two years, the intention being that the new initiative commences at the next IAHS assembly to be held in Goteborg in July 2013. The Bureau hoped that a new decade could be launched, therefore engaging IAHS and the scientific community in the new science initiative during the period 2013 – 2022. The timeline for the Task Force is as follows.
- by December 2011 the TF should start a scientific discussion with the international community of hydrologists to collect new ideas, in the form of a public blog.
- By May 2012 topics and more concrete ideas should be further developed to be discussed at a meeting to be held in China, under the organization of IAHS Vice-President Prof. Liliang Ren.
- By October 2012 the new initiative is expected to be finally crystallized and presented at the IAHS 90th Birthday Meeting to be held in Delft.
- By July 2013 the new initiative is expected to be presented and launched at the IAHS General Assembly to be held in Goteborg.
The TF will be dissolved once its work is completed.
The structure of the Task Force
The task of the TF is to launch a productive scientific discussion by identifying preliminary ideas and inviting a large group of scientists to propose their input and new suggestions. Ideally the scientific input should come from the community with the TF in charge of coordinating and summarizing the discussion. To be productive the TF is composed by:
- Core group.
- Extended group.
Tasks of the Core Group
The Core Group is kept deliberately small. It is in charge of actively involving scientists in the public discussion, by proposing a first short list of ideas. Each Core Group member is expected to stimulate the discussion, attend relevant international meetings and actively contribute towards preparing scientific presentations, internal documents and reports, etc. Tasks of the Extended Group The Extended Group is composed of a larger but still manageable group of people. Each Extended Group member is expected to oversee the discussion, actively make suggestions, promote the visibility of the TF work in his/her community and involve his/her community in the open scientific discussion. Extended Group members are fully informed on the work of the TF. The discussion initiated through the on-line tool will go on during physical meetings. As mentioned above, a milestone will be a dedicated meeting, open to the scientific community that will be held in China during May 2012, organized by IAHS Vice-President Prof. Liliang Ren. After the latter meeting, the Core Group and Extended Group will close the external consultation and will start wrapping up ideas and outlining the research agenda.
Time schedule, milestones and deliverables
The Table below summarizes the time schedule for the activity of the TS. Milestones and deliverables are identified in order to show the expected output.
| Date | Description |
| December, 2011 | Opening of the blog and kick off of the scientific discussion |
| April 2012 | Meeting of the TF at the EGU meeting in Vienna |
| May, 2012 | Scientific Meeting in China – By invitation only, discussion of the Draft Agenda. Organizer: Prof. Liliang Ren |
| June, 2012 | Report to the IAHS President on the activity. Draft Scientific Agenda for the New Decade |
| October 2012 | Meeting of the TF at the IAHS meeting in Delft |
| November, 2012 | Final Report to the IAHS President. Scientific Agenda IAHS Decade 2013-2022 |
| December, 2012 | Scientific paper outlining the scientific agenda |
| June, 2013 | Final development of details. Launch of the New Decade. Completion of the TF’s tasks. |
Core Group Members
- Alberto Montanari (Chair, University of Bologna – Italy)
- Berit Arheimer (Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute – Sweden)
- Eva Boegh (Roskilde University – Denmark)
- Fabrizio Fenicia (Gabriel Lippman Research Center – Luxembourg)
- Yan Huang (Bureau of Hydrology, Changjiang Water Resources Commission – China)
- Hillary McMillan (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research – New Zealand)
- Charles Perrin (Cemagref – France)
- Thorsten Wagener (Penn State University – USA)
Extended Group members
- Jennie Barron (University of York – UK)
- Vladimir Belyaev (Russia)
- Ximing Cai (University of Illinois – USA)
- Greg Characklis (University of North Carolina – USA)
- Christophe Cudennec (Agrocampus Ouest – France)
- James Cullis (University of Colorado – USA)
- Mekonnen Gebremichael (University of Connecticut – USA)
- Salvatore Grimaldi (University of Tuscia, Italy)
- Ciaran Harman (University of Illinois – USA)
- Louise Heathwaite (Lancaster Environment Center – UK)
- Matt Hipsey (University of Western Australia – Australia)
- Yukiko Hirabayashi (University of Tokio – Japan)
- Stephen Loheide (University of Wisconsis – USA)
- Gil Mahe (HydroSciences Montpellier Laboratory – France)
- Dominic Mazvimavi (University of the Western Cape, South Africa)
- Ralf Merz (Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research – Germany)
- Jean Minella (Brasil)
- Pat Reed (Penn State University – USA)
- Ying Fan Reinfelder (State University of New Jersey – USA)
- Bettina Schaefli (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne – Switzerland)
- Stan Schymanski (ETH – Switzerland)
- Christiaan Stamm (EAWAG – Switzerland)
- Sally Thompson (Duke University – USA)
- Alberto Viglione (Vienna University of Technology – Austria)
- Dawen Yang (Tsinghua University, China)
- Chunmiao Zheng (Peking University, China)
The discussion on the new IAHS scientific decade is hosted in this blog, which is moderated by the TF Chair (see the page “Discussion on the new Science Initiative”). The community is expected to actively comment and provide new suggestions. Active bloggers will be involved in the work of the TF and the challenging synthesis work to be carried out during summer, 2012. Please visit the blog and provide your point of view and expectations! It is extremely important to make the new science initiative a community effort!