PARTICIPATING IN SILVER SPRING:

Glenn Austin, National Weather Service
Mike Grimm, Federal Emergency Management Agency
Martin Becker, Defenders of Property Rights
Don Frevert, US Bureau of Reclamation
Will Thomas, Association of State Flood Plain Managers
Tom Dietrich, National Weather Service
Larry Wenzel, National Weather Service
Steve Blanchard, US Geological Survey
Tom Zembrzuski, US Geological Survey
Eric Janes, Bureau of Land Management
David Wells, Environmental Protection Agency
Sam Lin, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Bill Merkel, Natural Resource Conservation Service
Ken Bullard, US Bureau of Reclamation
Gene Stallings, National Hydrologic Warning Council
Ken Gorton, American Forests
Chris Knopp, USDA - Forest Service
Bonnie Wyatt, USDA - Forest Service
Doug James, National Science Foundation
Rocky Durrans, University of Alabama
Scott Jackson, Department of Commerce

PARTICIPATING BY PHONE HOOK-UP:

Tom Donaldson, National Weather Service
Arlen Feldman, Corps of Engineers
George Leavesley, US Geological Survey
Jayantha Obeysekera, South Florida Water Management District

SUMMARY OF MEETING:

Glenn Austin called the meeting to order.

The minutes of the July 29 subcommittee meeting were approved.

Agency and Organization reports:

Gene Stallings reported that the Southwest Association for Alert Systems will be meeting in Houston the week of October 21-25. The National Hydrologic Warning Council report is available at the website http://www.nws.noaa.gov/oh/ahps

Martin Becker inquired about the impacts of the National Data Quality Act on the member agencies and organizations.

Don Frevert reported that the Bureau of Reclamation's Science and Technology Program is being revamped. The Watershed and River Systems Management Program - a cooperative effort between Reclamation and the US Geological Survey is continuing to focus on developing tools for the Truckee River basin, the Columbia Basin Project and other Reclamation managed river systems.

Will Thomas reported that the Association of State Floodplain Managers has adopted a resolution supporting full funding of the US Geological Survey's stream gaging program. Will distributed a copy of the resolution.

Bill Merkel noted that Bruce Knight is the new chief of NRCS. He is supportive of developing new technology.

David Wells reported that EPA is continuing to work closely with the USGS on development of the National Hydrography Database (NHD). They are also rejuvenating their relationship with NASA for using remote sensing data in environmental applications. EPA has also been working with the Consortium for GIS in Water Resources in the development of the new GIS software Arc Hydro. The Consortium's Water Resources Symposium will be held from December 16 to 18th at the University of Texas in Austin. The forum will focus on water resource applications using digital elevation data. Additional information is available at:

http://www.crwr.utexas.edu/terrainAnalysis/about.cfm

The National Data Quality Act will have significant effects on EPA. They have found that they had already incorporated many of the information quality processes but need to do a better job of documenting the procedures.

Chris Knopp will be the regular representative for the Forest Service on the subcommittee. Best Management Practices (BMP) monitoring protocol is a major priority for the Forest Service.

Eric Janes has returned to Bureau of Land Management (BLM) headquarters from a management detail in Denver. Eric noted that the National Data Quality Act will have profound ramifications for BLM. The impacts are presently being assessed.

Tom Zembrzuski introduced Steve Blanchard, the new Chief of the Office of Surface Water, and noted that Steve will be replacing Mike Norris as the Geological Survey's representative on the subcommittee.

Doug James reported that the Consortium of Universities is still growing and that the impacts of research on water resources management is the topic of an ongoing evaluation by Bob Hirsch of the Geological Survey. The Heinz center is conducting an evaluation of the impacts of dam removal.

Mike Grimm reported that map modernization efforts will be getting an increase in the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) budget. Mike passed out a document describing the modernization effort. FEMA is working with state agencies on an inventory of needs for flood plain mapping. Mike distributed a demo CD on Digital Flood Mapping. FEMA is aware of the National Data Quality Act and is involved with several related committees.

Rocky Durrans is the new chair of the Hydrologic Frequency Group.

Tom Dietrich National Weather Service (NWS) is developing a database of Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service (AHPS) forecast information that will be linked to GIS and made available to customers via the internet. On another note, the Commerce Department established a team to insure compliance with the National Data Quality Act.

Arlen Feldman noted the success of the Second Federal Interagency Hydrologic Modeling Conference which was held in Las Vegas last summer.

Action: Mike Grimm will e-mail the multi hazard website to the group.

Action: All members are requested to provide abstracts or summaries of their presentation materials by e-mail to Mike and Don Frevert prior to the meeting.

Review of the Federal Interagency Hydrologic Modeling Conference:

Glenn Austin acknowledged the organizers and participants of the Federal Interagency Hydrologic Modeling Conference. Glenn felt there was great interaction in all sessions and that the training classes and field trips were excellent.

Arlen Feldman thanked the subcommittee for their support and noted that financial support provided by NSF had allowed a number of students to participate in the conference who otherwise might not have been able to.

Plaques were presented (or will be sent) to Doug Glysson, Arlen Feldman, George Leavesley, Tom Donaldson, Pete Hawkins, Steve Markstrom, Roland Viger, Jeff Rieker, Jayantha Obeysekera and Don Frevert for their efforts on the conference.

George Leavesley noted that he has about 400 copies of the proceedings on CD. Don Frevert has some hard copies of the proceedings for the 1998 and 1993 conferences.

Action: It was proposed, and generally agreed to, that a complementary CD for the conference should be sent to each member of the subcommittee.

The possibility of putting the proceedings on the web was discussed. This would essentially allow free access to the proceedings by anyone with web connections, but it might also require some significant effort. It would also be likely to reduce sales of the CD proceedings.

The frequency for holding the hydrologic modeling conference was discussed. Several participants expressed the feeling that four years was too long an interval between conferences. However members of the organizing committee noted that the process of scoping out issues, identifying potential sessions, recruiting abstracts, selecting a facility, setting up the program and compiling proceedings takes more than two years. The possibility of holding smaller and more informal workshops during the off years was discussed. It was also suggested that the scope could be broadened to include flood frequency analysis. It was suggested that consideration be given to forming a standing group to run the hydrologic modeling conferences.

ACWI Issues:

It was moved, seconded and adopted that each agency should provide the subcommittee chair an agency report which will be used in preparing the subcommittee's report to Advisory Committee on Water Information (ACWI).

Hydrologic Frequency Analysis Workgroup:

The Hydrologic Frequency Analysis Workgroup met on October 16 at Michael Baker and Associates' Offices in Alexandria. The report of the workgroup to the committee was distributed by Will Thomas. A draft list of Frequently Asked Questions related to frequency analysis was also distributed. Rocky Durrans is the incoming chair and Will Thomas is the incoming vice-chair. Guidance as to the direction and priorities of the workgroup is needed from the subcommittee will be provided at the next subcommittee meeting.

Hydrologic Radio Frequency Workgroup:

Scott Jackson (DOC - Office of Radio Frequency) provided the subcommittee with an update on the narrowbanding topic and also summarized border activities with Canada and Mexico. A coordinated agreement between the US and Mexico is being developed and the protocol is now in place. A similar agreement between the US and Canada is already in place. Narrow banding of the VHF band is about 43% complete government wide and narrow banding of the UHF band is about 50% complete government wide. An issue remains regarding who pays for the narrow banding and there is a need to get agencies to certify that their equipment is narrow banded.

Satellite Telemetry Interagency Workgroup:

Bonnie Wyatt reported on the activities of the Satellite Telemetry Interagency Workgroup (STIWG). The group is doing a user survey to evaluate the needs and requirements of each agency for GOES data. The group meets three times a year and the most recent meeting was on October 8. Jim Doty of the Bureau of Reclamation is the incoming chair of the group. Other members represent the US Geological Survey, the Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Land Management and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Defenders of Property Rights Presentation:

This presentation was deferred to the next subcommittee meeting.

New Officers:

Mike Grimm took over as subcommittee chair and Don Frevert took over as vice-chair. All members expressed their appreciation to Glenn Austin for his dedication, commitment and guidance over the past two years.

Next Meeting:

The next meeting will be held at the offices of Michael Baker Corporation in Alexandria at 10:00 am EST on January 23, 2003. A short tour of the FEMA map production facilities will be available after the meeting for those who are interested.

Adjournment:

The meeting was adjourned at 12:35 pm.