South Dakota Water Resources Institute and USGS 104g Request for Proposals

The U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the South Dakota Water Resources Institute requests proposals under Section 104(g) of the Water Resources Research Act of 1984. We are pleased to announce the fiscal year 2013 104b grant competition. This competitive grant program focuses on: Water problems and issues of a regional or interstate nature, i.e., beyond those of concern only to a single State, as well as relating to specific program priorities identified jointly by the Secretary (of the Interior) and the (water resources research) institutes.

More information about the grant program and instructions for proposals are available at http://www.sdstate.edu/abe/wri/research/104g.cfm. Note, that the research priorities for FY 2013 are different from those of previous years.

The objectives of the program are:

1. Promote collaboration between the USGS and university scientists in research on significant national and regional water resources issues.
2. Promote the dissemination and application of the results of the research funded under this program.
3. Assist in the training of scientists in relevant water resource fields.

Maximum Grant Size and Duration of Project:

• Applicants shall not request total federal funds exceeding $250,000 per project.  Each applicant must match each Federal dollar provided to support each proposed project with not less than one dollar from non-federal sources. Federal funds may not be used to pay for indirect costs, but matching funds can be used for indirect costs. To fulfill part of the matching requirement, the applicant's negotiated indirect cost rate may be applied to both federal and non-federal direct costs. The indirect cost rate may not be applied to tuition and equipment costs.
• Proposed projects may be of 1 to 3 years in duration, with discrete 12-month budget periods.

Proposal contents (see http://www.sdstate.edu/abe/wri/research/104g.cfm for additional information):

• Signed matching funds commitment letter
• Suggested reviewers (up to six reviewers that must be from other states than South Dakota)
• Project information
• SF424 Application and SF424B Assurances – these forms will be uploaded to www.grants.gov by the South Dakota Water Resources Institute.

Application submission procedure:
Proposals must be filed on the Internet through the Online Program Management System at https://niwr.net/ by 4:00 PM, Eastern Time, Thursday, February 21, 2013 and must be prepared and submitted in accordance with the instructions of that site. Investigators must register and log in at the site to upload the proposal. After filing the proposal the Director of the South Dakota Water Resources Institute will review the proposal. The Director may contact the Principal Investigator to discuss possible clarifications or changes in the proposal. Upon the review and approval, the Director will authorize the proposal to be transferred from NIWR to the National Grants Competition. Supplemental proposal information (Forms SF-424 and SF-424B) will be uploaded to www.grants.gov by the South Dakota Water Resources Institute.

Please contact Trista Koropatnicki at 605-688-4910 or Trista.koropatnicki@sdstate.edu for additional questions. Feel free to share this announcement with anyone who may be interested in these grant funds who may not have received this notification.

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Free Lecture: Mapping Water Use from Space

The public is invited to a free lecture about how water use is being mapped from space to be presented at the Library of Congress.

Research scientist Martha Anderson will discuss "Mapping Water Use from Space" at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, June 14, in the Mary Pickford Theater on the third floor of the James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington. The event is free and open to the public. Tickets are not needed.

Access to water is a daily issue of life or death in many parts of the world, and it is essential for healthy crops wherever they are grown. Water is central to the economies of U.S. western states, and legal battles over fresh water there have been common for many years. Now the means to objectively measure and map water use with observations from space-based satellites has been discovered, and as it moves from innovation to everyday operations, a revolution in practical water monitoring is underway.

"I'll be discussing mapping techniques and uses for satellite-derived evapotranspiration, providing examples in western U.S. water management, drought monitoring, and international applications in food and water security," Anderson said. Martha Anderson is a research physical scientist at the USDA's Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, Md.

Research scientists have learned to measure the exchange of water vapor between the land surface and the atmosphere, or what's called evapotranspiration (ET), by using observations from space. ET is made up of the water that's evaporated directly from surfaces plus the water evaporated from leaves in a process called transpiration. Transpiration uses energy, so vegetation with access to sufficient water appears cooler than vegetation under water-limited conditions. Detecting this difference from space can help with monitoring drought, managing water, planning for irrigation, and predicting crop yield, all key areas for farming and natural resource management.

The illustrated lecture, the fourth in a series of programs in 2012, is presented through a collaboration between the Library's Science, Technology and Business Division and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The collaboration is in its sixth year.

Martha Anderson is a research physical scientist for the USDA Agricultural Research Service in the Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory in Beltsville, Md. She received her Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis in 1993, with a dissertation on cosmic ray acceleration in galactic supernova remnants. Her interests in environmental issues then steered her toward postgraduate research in Earth observation using satellites, and led her to international collaborations in monitoring water resources around the world. Her research interests focus on mapping water, energy, and carbon using observations from space-based sensors. She served as a member of the Landsat Science Team from 2006 to 2011, and recently co-edited a book entitled, Remote Sensing of Drought: Innovative Monitoring Approaches.

The Library of Congress maintains one of the largest and most diverse collections of scientific and technical information in the world. The Science, Technology and Business Division provides reference and bibliographic services and develops the general collections of the Library in all areas of science, technology, business and economics.

The Library of Congress, the nation's oldest federal cultural institution and the largest library in the world, holds nearly 151.8 million items in various languages, disciplines and formats. The Library serves the U.S. Congress and the nation both on-site in its reading rooms on Capitol Hill and through its award-winning website at www.loc.gov.

For inquiries about this or upcoming talks at the Library of Congress, the public can contact the LOC Science, Technology and Business Division at 202-707-5664. ADA accommodations should be requested five business days in advance at 202-707-6382 (voice/tty).

For more information about Landsat satellites, visit: www.nasa.gov/landsat

SOURCE NASA

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Underwater Mapping Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Sri Lanka's marine researchers are planning to use aerial and underwater unmanned vehicles with remote sensing technology to study the oceans around the country, officials said.

Sri Lanka's National Aquatic Research Agency (NARA) wants to team up with the island's air force to use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for marine search.

"They have experience from the war, which matches with the research needs," NARA chairman Hiran Jayewardene said.

Sri Lanka's military used UAVs extensively in a war with Tamil Tiger separatists which ended in May 2009.

Jayewardene, a marine researcher with international experience was invited back to head NARA, which was set up 30 years ago with his participation by the island's current fisheries minister Rajitha Senaratne.

Jayewardene helped develop methods now used to demarcate ocean bed allocations by the United Nations at the time he was a doctoral student at Cambridge University, Senaratne said.

NARA researchers are also in talks with the French oceanographic and geophysical research unit to collaborate on the use of underwater gliders for marine research.

"These gliders can be pre-programmed to go on a path, collect data and return," Kanapathipilli Arulanandan, who heads NARA's oceanography unit, said.

The gliders have sensors which can collect data on underwater conditions, including temperature and light levels at various depths, officials said.

"This is a wonderful tool for a small country like ours. We are hoping that the French will collaborate," Jayewardene said.

"It runs at approximately a one kilometer an hour, very slowly. And it uses very little energy and it can go deep down into the ocean; it can be programmed to gather data. It can go up and down it can go in a zigzag pattern, it can go in a vertical pattern.

"It periodically comes to the surface and it transmits data through satellite to the shore."

SOURCE Lanka Business Online

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Watershed database management system for DENR, Philippines

The Department of Environment and Natural Resoures (DENR) will develop and maintain a database management system for information on Philippine watersheds.

This aims to better help generate integrated management plans that will promote sustainable development in watersheds which are land areas drained by streams or fixed bodies of water and tributaries having common outlets for surface run-off.

DENR Secretary Jose "Lito" Atienza believes such plans will enable the country to maximize benefits from watershed resources without jeopardizing these in the process.

He ordered the database management system's establishment through Memorandum Circular 2008-05 which will take effect in mid-November this year.

The system will cover data on watersheds' bio-physical and socio-economic conditions.

Among bio-physical conditons to be included are geographic location, topography, geo-morphological features, soil, land classification and use, climate, hydrology, infrastructure, vegetation and fauna.

Socio-economic conditions will include population and density, livelihood, income, employment, sectoral production, public services, tourism and recreation, religion, politics, social groups, citizen participation as well as behavioral and cultural patterns.

Such data will help planners identify problems and development opportunities within different eco-systems in watersheds.

These eco-systems cover forests, uplands, grassland, lowlands and urban areas as well as coastal and marine locations.

"Data gathered shall be analyzed based on integrated and participatory management, development and rehabilitation requirements of the watershed, addressing multi-dimensional issues from forests down to coastal areas as the case may be," Atienza said.

Among analysis tools planners will use are SWOT, problem tree, geographic information system (GIS) and land use determination matrix (LUDM).

SWOT analysis is for evaluating development initiatives' strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats while problem tree analysis maps out causes and effects around an issue, the DENR noted.

The department likewise said GIS integrates spatially-referenced data to identify areas needing immediate intervention while LUDM is based on watersheds' development and rehabilitation requirements in relation to deforestation and soil erosion.

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