Water Resources Division CPAC Home Page

The purpose of this memorandum is to bring to your attention a large and growing concern identified by the Computer Policy Advisory Committee (CPAC). At a recent regular meeting, committee members repeatedly commented on the inability of Office of Information (OI) units to provide a level of computer-related support and development services that are adequate for the Water Resources Division (WRD) to meet its mission and further its strategic goals. Upon further analysis, CPAC concluded that the primary reason for this unacceptable situation is the cumulative effect of continued reductions in financial support of OI activities combined with regular expansion of the scope of most activities.

Of greatest concern is the slow pace of improvements to the National Water Information System (NWIS). Admittedly, advances are being made and the process is working to provide improved tools with little disruption to field activities. We fear, however, that as the rate of such progress continues to slow, because of added responsibilities (such as NatWeb) and significantly reduced resources, the impacts will be far-reaching within WRD and severely diminish our ability to provide quality science for a changing world. CPAC believes that the slow pace is largely a result of resource deprivation, not program management and staff who continue to develop and support an impressive product with the resources available.

Resources for NWIS have declined over the past five years while expectations for the web, reliability of real-time components, field computers, and system modernization rise. The current dependence on numerous volunteer advisory and user groups, code production expectations that exceed industry standards, delay of many planned upgrades to future releases, and regular slippage of timelines are all indications of resource deprivation. For this mission-critical activity that is a key element in our ability to meet Government Performance Review Act (GPRA) objectives, we strongly encourage you and your staff to redouble your efforts to secure significant additional funds to speed the rate of providing NWIS upgrades to WRD field staff.

CPAC also observes a disturbingly low level of financial investment by WRD in the purchase, maintenance, development, documentation, and training in the use of corporate computer hardware and software needed to conduct our business effectively and efficiently. There appears to be a large and growing unmet financial need in these areas that is undoubtedly contributing to less than full performance by WRD staff. If additional resources are not found, we expect WRD performance to slip even further. Some examples include the fact that, without infusion of Y2K funds, our installed hardware would be significantly lacking. User and product support for many software packages suffer from lack of resources. There is no uniform solution to the field computer needs of our technical staff. WRD has no effective way of capturing and disseminating innovative programs developed in the field to assist subsequent users having similar needs. And, there are inadequate funds to invest in development of programs or testing of new computer equipment to gain information to help meet emerging or expected future needs.

CPAC is very supportive of the OI and your talented and dedicated staff. We again encourage you to seek take the initiative to locate additional funding sources in order to not jeopardize the ability of WRD to move with confidence to undertake the scientific challenges of the 21st century with a full suite of computer hardware and software at its disposal.