Integrating federal research on climate and global change

The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) has been guided over time by the following strategic plans:

• 2008: Revised Research Plan: An Update to the 2003 Strategic Plan
• 2003: Strategic Plan for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program
• 1989: Our Changing Planet: The FY 1990 Research Plan [pdf]
• 1989: Our Changing Planet: A U.S. Strategy for Global Change Research [pdf]

The USGCRP is currently assessing strategic directions for the future. It is engaging the scientific community and stakeholders in this process.

The program has undertaken a series of "listening sessions" with a variety of stakeholder groups around the country to gain a better understanding of the emerging needs for climate information and ways in which federal research might be shaped to meet those needs. The program and its member departments and agencies have also commissioned a number of reports from the NRC to help guide it in its current activities and future planning. Some of the more recent of these reports, available from www.nap.edu, are the following:

• 2009. Restructuring Federal Climate Research to Meet the Challenges of Climate Change. 254 pp.
• 2009. Informing Decisions in a Changing Climate. 200 pp.
• 2008. Ensuring the Climate Record from the NPOESS and GOES-R Spacecraft. 180 pp.
• 2008. Public Participation in Environmental Assessment and Decision Making. Pre-publication.
• 2008. Potential Impacts of Climate Change on U.S. Transportation: Special Report. 296 pp.
• 2008. Global Climate Change and Extreme Weather Events: Understanding the Contributions to Infectious Disease Emergence: Workshop Summary. 304 pp.
• 2008. Hydrologic Effects of a Changing Forest Landscape. 194 pp.
• 2008. Observing Weather and Climate from the Ground Up: A Nationwide Network of Networks.
• 2007. Earth Science and Applications from Space: National Imperatives for the Next Decade and Beyond. 456 pp.
• 2007. Assessment of the NASA Applied Sciences Program. 160 pp.
• 2007. Evaluating Progress of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program: Methods and Preliminary Results. 170 pp.
• 2007. Analysis of Global Change Assessments. 182 pp.
• 2007. Understanding Multiple Environmental Stresses: Report of a Workshop. 141 pp.
• 2007. Research and Networks for Decision Support in the NOAA Sectoral Applications Research Program. 96 pp.
• 2007. Environmental Data Management at NOAA: Archiving, Stewardship, and Access. 130 pp.
• 2007. NOAA’s Role in Space-Based Global Precipitation Estimation and Application. 142 pp.