USGCRP News

Federal Register Notice: "National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee (NCADAC); Notice of Open Meeting"

Monday, October 22, 2012

Federal Register Notice:
"National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee

(NCADAC); Notice of Open Meeting"
pdf | html

This notice sets forth the schedule of a forthcoming meeting of the DoC NOAA National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee (NCADAC).

Time and Date: The meeting will be held November 14, 2012 from 9:00 a.m.-5:30 p.m. and November 15 from 8:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Location: This meeting will be held at the Silver Spring Civic Building at Veterans Plaza located at One Veterans Place Silver Spring, MD 20910. Please check the National Climate Assessment Web site for additional information at http://www.globalchange.gov/what-we-do/assessment.

Status: Seating will be available on a first come, first serve basis. Members of the public must RSVP in order to attend all or a portion of the meeting by contacting the NCADAC DFO (Cynthia.Decker@noaa.gov) and alternate DFO (kandis.wyatt@noaa.gov) by 12 p.m. November 9, 2012. The meeting will be open to public participation with a 15-minute public comment period from 11:45 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on November 14, 2012. The NCADAC expects that public statements presented at its meetings will not be repetitive of previously submitted verbal or written statements. In general, each individual or group making a verbal presentation will be limited to a total time of two minutes. Written comments should be received in the NCADAC DFO's office by Friday, November 9, 2012, to provide sufficient time for NCADAC review. Written comments received by the NCADAC DFO after Friday, November 9, 2012, will be distributed to the NCADAC, but may not be reviewed prior to the meeting date.

Special Accommodations: These meetings are physically accessible to people with disabilities. Requests for special accommodations may be directed no later than 12 p.m. on Monday, September 21, 2012, to Dr. Cynthia Decker, SAB Executive Director, SSMC3, Room 11230, 1315 East-West Hwy., Silver Spring, MD 20910.

Matters to be Considered: Please refer to the Web page http://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/NCADAC/index.html for the most up-to-date meeting agenda, when available.

For Further Information Contact: Dr. Cynthia Decker, Designated Federal Official, National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee, NOAA, Rm. 11230, 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910. (Phone: 301-734-1156, Fax: 301-713-1459, Email: Cynthia.Decker@noaa.gov.

Supplementary Information: The National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee was established in December 2010. The committee's mission is to synthesize and summarize the science and information pertaining to current and future impacts of climate change upon the United States; and to provide advice and recommendations toward the development of an ongoing, sustainable national assessment of global change impacts and adaptation and mitigation strategies for the Nation. Within the scope of its mission, the committee's specific objective is to produce a National Climate Assessment.

Dated: October 16, 2012.

[FR Doc. 2012-25961 Filed 10-19-12; 8:45 am]

Employment Opportunity at the USGCRP National Coordination Office

The USGCRP is looking to fill a Global Change Information Systems Software Engineer/Programmer III (Part-Time) position

Basic Job Function:

Content Acquisition and Curation: Communicates with agency scientists and data management experts about global change information, analyzes agency data and information characteristics, and recommends options for incorporation into the GCIS. Works with USGCRP and agency data center staff to establish, interpret and apply protocols and processes for acquisition and maintenance of relevant global change information. Establishes, maintains and follows procedures for interaction with external data systems that will interact with the GCIS, including the NASA Global Change Master Directory, data.gov, etc. Oversees content holdings of the GCIS, including analyzing and applying inclusion criteria. Tracks and analyzes system usage and metrics, produces reports, and makes recommendations for content acquisition and organization.
Semantic Web Information Modeling: Identifies and analyzes GCIS use cases and data/information, and performs requirements analysis. Serves as a key liaison with expert contractors and domain experts to guide selection and construction of information models, database schemas, vocabularies, and ontologies for managing data. Determines and implements appropriate persistent identifier schemes for GCIS information. Maps and harmonizes existing agency data center information holdings to incorporate into GCIS.
Special Projects: Provides technical direction for junior staff on assigned projects and mentor members of the development team. Interacts cooperatively with key team members, onsite and offsite, as well as clients and vendors. Participates in other USGCRP activities in support of GCIS needs and/or represents the GCIS in broader programmatic activities. Undertakes other special projects as assigned.

Required Education and Experience:

B.S. degree in a scientific/technical or digital library science related discipline; and a minimum of six years of experience with science data curation; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

All Applications MUST be submitted via the UCAR career portal in order to be eligible for consideration.
Positions received prior to 5pm on Thursday, October 25 will receive priority review.

Apply here.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Employment Opportunity at the USGCRP National Coordination Office

The USGCRP is looking to fill a Global Change Information System (GCIS) Systems Engineer (Software Engineer/Programmer III) position

Basic Job Function:

Works in close coordination with the Global Change Information System (GCIS) Technical Lead, and directly contributes to development efforts for the GCIS. This position will be responsible for ensuring the system is compliant with standards, while also remaining user friendly and utilizing best practices.

The candidate must be a self-starter and be comfortable managing their own time while working on concurrent projects. The candidate should be experienced and comfortable working with non-technical stakeholders, helping to shape requirements when necessary, and communicating with a large multi-agency team including editors, graphics professionals, visualization specialists, managers and data architects.

Required Education and Experience:

BS degree in Computer Science, Information Systems or scientific/technical related discipline AND a minimum of 8 - 10 years of system development experience OR equivalent combination of education and experience.

All Applications MUST be submitted via the UCAR career portal in order to be eligible for consideration.
Applications received prior to 5:00pm MDT on Friday, November 2, 2012 will have priority consideration.

Apply here. Applications due by Friday, November 2, 2012

U.S Forest Service report forecasts natural resource management trends and challenges for next 50 years.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

A comprehensive U.S. Forest Service report released Tuesday examines the ways expanding populations, increased urbanization, and changing land-use patterns could profoundly impact natural resources, including water supplies, nationwide during the next 50 years.

Significantly, the study shows the potential for significant loss of privately-owned forests to development and fragmentation, which could substantially reduce benefits from forests that the public now enjoys including clean water, wildlife habitat, forest products and others.

“We should all be concerned by the projected decline in our nation’s forests and the corresponding loss of the many critical services they provide such as clean drinking water, wildlife habitat, carbon sequestration, wood products and outdoor recreation,” said Agriculture Under Secretary Harris Sherman. “Today’s report offers a sobering perspective on what is at stake and the need to maintain our commitment to conserve these critical assets. Read more.

Emerging Consensus Shows Climate Change Already Having Major Effects on Ecosystems and Species

Emerging Consensus Shows Climate Change Already Having Major Effects on Ecosystems and Species

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Featured by USGS, a member of the U.S. Global Change Research Program

Plant and animal species are shifting their geographic ranges and the timing of their life events – such as flowering, laying eggs or migrating – at faster rates than researchers documented just a few years ago, according to a technical report on biodiversity and ecosystems used as scientific input for the 2013 Third National Climate Assessment.

The report, Impacts of Climate Change on Biodiversity, Ecosystems, and Ecosystem Services, synthesizes the scientific understanding of the way climate change is affecting ecosystems, ecosystem services and the diversity of species, as well as what strategies might be used by natural resource practitioners to decrease current and future risks.

More than 60 federal, academic and other scientists, including the lead authors from the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Wildlife Federation and Arizona State University in Tempe, authored the assessment. Read more.

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