Integrated Water Resources Science and Services
The Integrated Water Resources Science and Services (IWRSS) is a consortium of federal agencies with complementary missions in water science, observation, management, prediction, and response to water hazards.
The overarching objective of IWRSS is to enable and demonstrate a broad, integrative national water resources information system to serve as a reliable and authoritative means for adaptive water-related planning, operations, preparedness, and response activities.
Current members
The current members of IWRSS are the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and the USGS.
Focus themes
The IWRSS partners are focusing on the following three themes that are larger than any single agency can solve alone.
Theme 1: Data interoperability and sharing
A major goal of IWRSS is to improve system interoperability and data synchronization to expand and enable more timely communication of water information necessary to achieve a common operating picture during floods and droughts.
Some historical successes include sharing DECODES configurations and data time-series, as well as rating table synchronization (needed for operation of streamgages). The IWRSS continues to explore data exchange gaps between IWRSS partners, including where integration of common information across interagency systems is possible and would benefit data exchange and dissemination in the protection of life and property.
Theme 2: Modeling and mapping
The IWRSS partners continue to work to improve water modeling in order to develop a joint operational water resources forecasting system to support the National Weather Service National Water Model high-resolution analyses and forecasts. These analyses and forecasts help decision makers manage the increasingly limited fresh water supply and better mitigate the impacts of floods and droughts.
Potential new directions for improving modeling could include a national bathymetry repository and a national reservoir operations portal as a data source for operational models.
Similarly, IWRSS partners continue to work to improve mapping. In particular, IWRSS partners are coordinating flood inundation mapping activities to show the forecasted spatial extent and depth of flooding. This information is used by emergency managers and other decision makers to pre-position people and resources to mitigate the impacts of floods and build more resilient communities more effectively.
Flood inundation mapping includes a wide range of mapping products. For example, the USGS Flood Inundation Mapping Program supports the creation and curation of high-accuracy hydraulic-based flood inundation map products in the USGS Flood Inundation Mapper. Each of the IWRSS partners generates inundation mappers specific to their missions. The National Weather Service has been tasked to integrate these efforts into a national dynamic inundation effort that is ongoing.
Theme 3: Risk analysis
Multiple federal agencies have equities, authorities, and allocations within the flood hazard identification and mapping space; however, no agency has clear authorities for assessing the impacts from flood hazards. The FEMA Risk MAP Program has limited authorities and authorizations to support flood and flood-associated hazard risk assessment in support of the National Flood Insurance Program.
Across the federal government, academic, and private sector, multiple entities are measuring impacts from flooding. Some groups are only interested in the count of buildings within a given area affected by flooding, while others are interested in either total economic impact to a region or building specific annualized losses. Currently, there is no formal coordination agreement regarding risk assessment roles and responsibilities between federal agency partners.
The IWRSS partners propose to establish a working group to:
- Identify and catalog all flood hazard risk assessment tools and products
- Perform a capabilities assessment on each tool
Longer term, IWRSS partners continue with the task of ensuring agency and programmatic alignment with flood hazard risk assessment and generating a long-term vision for a federal flood hazard risk assessment framework for inland and coastal flooding.
Governance
The IWRSS partnership is led by a governance board of agency leaders that usually meet on a quarterly schedule. A group of agency specialists implement the approved goals and strategic vision as set forth by the governance board. These specialists typically meet on a monthly basis.