US-Egypt Workshop: Broadening the Role of Cyberinfrastructure in Water Resources Management: Coping with the Challenges of Large River Basins, Cairo, December, 2008

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0827148MusteThis project is for a workshop titled ?US-Egypt Workshop on Broadening the Role of Cydberinfrastructure in Water Resources Management Coping with the Challenges of Large river Basins? to be held in Cairo, Egypt, December 29, 2008 to January 2, 2009. The U.S organizer is Dr. Marian Muste, Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Research, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa. The Egyptian co-organizers are Dr. Tarek Salaheldin, Cairo University, and Dr. Rasha El-Kholy, National Water Research Center, Shoubra El-Kheima, Egypt. For several decades, water resources decision-makers have indicated the need for a new management paradigm based on sound science seamlessly integrating cross-disciplinary data and simulation models for complex watershed processes and their interaction. Recent fast-paced scientific and engineering advancements in concert with those in information and communication technologies promise to bring the needed paradigm to reality. The proposed workshop is an excellent and timely opportunity to bring together researchers from IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering (IIHR), The University of Iowa and the National Water Research Center (NWRC) in Egypt for sharing, brainstorming, and planning joint work on a common challenge: building cyberinfrastructure-based platforms and networks for providing the scientific basis for decision-making about water resources in large river basins transcending jurisdiction boundaries. The project would support 7 researchers, 2 young investigators and 4 PhD students from IIHR, engaging them in a week-long interaction through scientific discussions and collaborative planning. Intellectual Merit: The proposed capacity building and collaboration workshop will enable a direct, first-hand interaction between U.S. and Egyptian researchers and educators pioneering the development and implementation of cyberinfrastructure-based environmental observatories and networks for large river basins. The workshop will be transformative, addressing watershed problems at their largest possible scale, allowing inferences and advances in understanding the water-human dynamics at any of the smaller-scale enclosed processes. Among the direct benefits of the proposed workshop are to: a) provide a unique first-hand experience and direct interactions between 30 researchers and students from U.S. and Egypt interested in developing cyberinfrastructure for watershed-scale environmental observatories; b) prepare specific collaborative items for future submission of joint proposals and establish the foundation for the first international collaboration in cyberinfrastructure for water science and engineering in large river basins; c) synthesize and disseminate the current status and future developmental needs for the implementation of cyberinfrastructure-based platforms in large river basins transcending state and national boundaries through a Workshop publication and a dedicated website. Broader Impact: The scientific and educational exchange facilitated by the workshop will contribute to U.S. efforts by the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Sciences Inc, (CUAHSI) and the Water and Environmental Research Systems (WATERS) Network for the development and implementation of environmental and hydrologic cyberinfrastructure in large-scale basins transcending administrative and political boundaries. Through direct dialogue between U.S. scientists and students and their foreign counterparts, practicable information will be obtained that will support the goals of these efforts, especially in the areas of increasing the stakeholder participation (particularly women) in the decision making process. Exposure to the extensive experience of the leading groups conducting cyberinfrastructure will advance the participants? knowledge and expertise, and will engender a global perspective of their area of study, as well as provide opportunities for professional growth and networking through international collaboration.