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The Log | School News

New Center to be a Forum to Study Water Quality on a River-Basin Scale

Efforts are underway to establish a new center in the Nicholas School to bring together scientists in the natural and policy sciences to study water quality on a basin-scale.

The Center for the Analysis and Prediction of River Basin Environmental Systems (CARES), directed by the Nicholas School's Kenneth H. Reckhow, will collaborate with other Nicholas School centers, and with researchers and centers at the University of Georgia, Virginia Tech, and Columbia University.

Ken ReckhowReckhow, who is spearheading the center's creation, said: "River basins are of central importance to human activity and provide for the maintenance of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Failure to preserve the quality and quantity of water in river basins risks significant impacts on human well being and potentially irreversible effects on ecosystems."

Reckhow, Nicholas School professor of water resources, said now is the time to create the center because there is a growing, national recognition of the importance of understanding the processes that affect water quality on a basin scale. Both the Environmental Protection Agency and National Geographic Society have initiatives focused on these issues.

This year the new center will establish a Web site at www.nicholas.duke.edu/cares; co-sponsor speakers with the Center for Environmental Solutions, the Center for Hydrologic Sciences and others; and explore the creation of a continuing education intensive course on the EPA's TMDL Program (Total Maximum Daily Load), which is the foundation for the nation's efforts to meet state water quality standards.

Future research efforts, Reckhow said, may include such projects as examining the role of local land use changes and the significance of large-scale climate variations in modifying river basin hydro-biogeochemistry, employing innovative technologies and focusing on basin-scale linages.

Duke faculty members associated with the center include Reckhow; Curtis J. Richardson, director of the Wetland Center; Dean L. Urban; Patrick N. Halpin; Craig A. Stow; William H. Schlesinger, dean of the Nicholas School; Daniel D. Richter; Lynn A. Maguire; Randall A. Kramer; David E. Hinton; Dharni Vasudevan; Kathi Beratan; and Robert Wolpert, from the Nicholas School; and Robert Clemen of the Fuqua School of Business. Collaborators include Upmanu Lail, professor of civil engineering at Columbia University; Leonard Shabman, professor of the environmental economics at Virginia Tech; and Judy Meyer, co-director of the River Basin Science and Policy Center at the University of Georgia.

"It is vital to me that the science we do in the center is relevant for water quality management on basin-scale and relates to better decision-making and environmental protection," said Reckhow.

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