NCED 2004 Annual Report

Abstract

As the human population expands, it continues to constrain, divert, modify and, often, reverse the natural processes occurring on the Earth’s dynamic surface. It is becoming clearer that the consequences of this expansion have often been negative and occasionally catastrophic. Similarly, efforts to mitigate past depredations often either fail or engender their own set of negative consequences. NCED believes that it is both possible and desirable to live sustainably on our planet, and that a major impediment to this vision is lack of integrated, practical and predictive models for the behavior of its dynamic surface.

Channels and channel systems are arguably the major influence on the Earth’s landscapes, especially those most sought-after by human populations. Our mission is to bring together the disciplines of geology, geomorphology, hydrology, hydraulics, biology, ecology and the social sciences to create truly integrated and predictive models of these channels and channel systems and the landscapes they create and maintain. Critical to the success of such models will be our ability to constrain and inform them with the full range of channel network dynamics that our planet is capable of producing. Study of the long-term stratigraphic record will provide NCED researchers with this menu of surface configurations, process interconnections, and rates of change that occur on planetary time scales. We will foster the rapid application of these advancements to land-use planning, environmental forecasting and landscape restoration efforts, and to the education of future leaders in these fields.