Weather impacts on watersheds: development of Web-based curriculum for broadcast meteorologists

Broadcast meteorologists are well positioned to inform the public about environmental science and the complex natural systems in which we live. The local watershed is one such system the public is often unaware of. These watersheds are impacted in different ways by weather events and the actions people take before, during, or after these events. The COMET® Program, in partnership with the National Environmental Education and Training Foundation (NEETF) and with support from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has begun developing a curriculum of six short Web-based modules to educate broadcast meteorologists about watershed science and the impacts of particular weather events on watersheds. The training focuses on increasing the public's awareness of watersheds as part of our environment and on explaining how both natural events and human activity can result in floods, water shortages, and changes in water quality. This effort has been initiated by NEETF in cooperation with the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and its efforts to support the concept of broadcast meteorologists as “station scientists.” This paper describes the design of the Web-based modules as well as that of a complementary Broadcast Meteorology Community Website within the COMET Program's MetEd Website (www.meted.ucar.edu).