World's hydrologists, meteorologists reaching common ground

October 1995

U.S. Water News Online

BOULDER, Colo. -- An alliance between hydrologists and climatologists from around the
world in working together to create more useful computer models was evident at the
recent general assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics at
Boulder. Scientists attending the meeting agreed that more common understanding is
needed of the processes that affect the transfer of water and energy from the Earth's
surface into the atmosphere.

Hydrologists and meteorologists may use the same or similar terminology that might have
totally different meanings, noted Jim Dooge, a hydrologist with the University
College Dublin. "It's easy to talk about science being a common language, but there
are many dialects within that common language," said Dooge.

Attendees of the Boulder conference noted that in the past, proposals for climate models
have been 180 degrees apart in some areas. The general feeling, however, that new
studies on climate change were drawing the two areas together.

Return to the U.S. Water News' past archives page

Or

Return to the U.S. Water News Homepage

 

uswatrnews@aol.com