The North American Regional Hydroclimate Projects: Then and Now!

In the early 1990s a newly formed GEWEX Program (Then called the Global Energy and Water cycle Experiment now: Global Energy and Water EXchanges project) launched several regional studies to measure and model regional variations in the water and energy cycle. A continental scale experiment was needed to develop the ability to measure and model the components of the water and energy cycles over a macroscale land surfaces from smaller scale observations. The first such experiment that got established around 1993 was the GEWEX Continental-Scale International Project (GCIP) that focused on the Mississipi river basin. Soon, other similar experiments followed such as in the Mackenzie River basin (MAGS), the Baltic Sea Experiment (BALTEX), GEWEX Asian Monsoon Experiment in Eastern Asia (GAME) and in the Amazon (LBA – large scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment). These first series of projects had a very strong geophysical focus. Over time though the interest broadened to a more integrated Earth system’s approach which more and more included the human dimension.

In the United States and Canada several of these large-scale projects took place and are taking place. Past projects such as GCIP/GAPP/CPPA in US and MAGS in Canada and current projects such as Global Water Futures (previously Saskatchewan River Basin project and Changing Cold Regions Network – CCRN and currently in the process to transform to the Global Water Futures Observations) and the newly formed H2US (Humans and Hydroclimate over the US). In this overview we explore the evolution of these projects and future expectations and potential collaborations with other large-scale projects and frameworks.