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RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – RTI International, a nonprofit research institute, will join the University of Alabama as a consortium partner for the newly established Cooperative Institute for Research to Operations in Hydrology (CIROH). CIROH, a national consortium of academic and nonprofit organizations will work to improve water resources management through improved science, data, forecast information, guidance, and equitable decision support services. CIROH is funded in part by a $360 million grant announced yesterday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
As a consortium partner, RTI will help spearhead NOAA’s vision of a water- and weather-ready nation and assist in advancing and reinforcing the work of NOAA’s Office of Weather Prediction, the National Weather Service, and the National Water Center.
“RTI is honored to be a part of the new consortium effort along with 28 academic institutions, nonprofit organizations and government and industry partners,” said Michael Kane, director of RTI’s Center for Water Resources, based in Fort Collins, Colorado. “The consortium will allow experts from a variety of different organizations to advance water management efforts and better prepare for the impacts of climate change. This will be all about supporting NOAA in promoting new science and new technology in water resources forecasting to benefit communities and the environment.”
CIROH will support four broad themes: water resources prediction, community water resources modeling, hydroinformatics, and the application of social, economic, and behavioral sciences to water resources prediction. RTI brings to the CIROH team a breadth and depth of technical excellence that is important to NOAA, including:
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More than 25 years of experience collaborating with NOAA and the Office of Water Prediction
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Implementation of NWS-based river forecast systems in more than a dozen countries around the world
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A thorough understanding of the complete forecasting process from data to models to messaging strategies to economic impacts to forecast verification methods
RTI’s role in CIROH will involve contributing to scientific and technical advancement of the NWS National Water Model and application of RTI’s broader capabilities in the economic, health, and behavioral sciences as they relate to and are impacted by water. The grant from NOAA will be administered by the Alabama Water Institute and led by UA.
