UNITED STATES ARCTIC RESEARCH PLAN July 1987 Prepared by INTERAGENCY ARCTIC RESEARCH POLICY COMMITTEE National Science Foundation Department of Commerce Department of Defense Department of Energy Department of Health and Human Services Department of the Interior Department of State Department of Transportation Environmental Protection Agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration I am pleased to transmit to you, and through you to the Congress, the United States Arctic Research Plan. The Plan has been prepared in accordance with Section 109 of Public Law 98-373, the Arctic Research and Policy Act of 1984. It is submitted on behalf of the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee, which is chaired by the National Science Foundation. Both the Interagency Committee and the Arctic Research Commission were authorized by the Act and established by your Executive Order 12501 of January 28, 1985. The Plan is a comprehensive statement of national needs and priorities in the areas of national security, rational resource development, and acquisition of new scientific knowledge in the Arctic. It was developed in consultation with the Arctic Research Commission, the Governor of the State of Alaska, residents of the Arctic, the private sector, and public interest groups. The Plan has been reviewed by participating agencies for accuracy of program descriptions and consistency with your budget. The members of the Interagency Committee hope that the Plan will be of value to the Administration, to Congress, to the arctic communities, and to the public. Enclosure Sincerely, Erich Bloch PREFACE The Arctic Research and Policy Act of 1984 instructs the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee to prepare a comprehensive five-year program plan for the overall Federal effort in Arctic research (Section 109). The Act states that included in the Plan shall be: (1) an assessment of national needs and problems, (2) a statement of goals and objectives, (3) a detailed listing of existing Federal programs, (4) recommendations for necessary program change, and (5) a description of actions to be taken to coordinate the budget process. This document presents the information required by the Act and constitutes the first five-year U.S. Arctic Research Plan prepared under the Act. It will be updated every two years. The Plan presents a series of multiagency and multidisciplinary programs that respond to major national needs in the Arctic. Its implementation will provide the Nation with the scientific and engineering knowledge required to enhance national security in the Arctic, provide the basis for rational development with minimal adverse environmental and social impacts, and improve understanding of how the Arctic system functions and affects regional and global changes. The Plan is intended to serve as a guide to the Federal agencies as they plan and perform their Arctic programs and missions; it is not intended to be a commitment by the Administration. The Plan is divided into four major parts. Part I, the Overview, describes how the Interagency Committee responded to each of the mandated requirements. Included are guiding recommendations for the entire Plan, sections describing development of the policy and the Plan, and the implementation activities necessary for Arctic research. Part I provides a summary of U.S. Arctic policy and recent ARPA activities. Parts II, III and IV contain the detailed recommendations, approaches, technical needs, and plans for ongoing and future disciplina ry and multi-disciplinary research within and across agencies. The three broad topics, Atmosphere and Oceans (Part II), Land (Part III), and People (Part IV), correspond to the recommendations developed by the Arctic Research Commission. A Summary and Introduction at the beginning of each part, and also at the beginning of each major section within a part, informs the reader of the scope of that portion of the Plan. The recommended research programs are not independent of current activities. Rather, they build on a wide range of ongoing Federal research programs that were described in the IARPC's first publication, Federal Arctic Research (September 1985). The scope of each existing program is briefly presented, along with budgetary information, in each major section of the Plan. A discussion of how the draft recommendations were revised based on an extensive consultative and review process is also included in each of the four parts of the Plan. A series of appendices provide additional documentation on the development of the Plan. One of these is a short acknowledgment of many individuals, in addition to the IARPC staff, who devoted considerable time and effort to the preparation of this first complete interagency Arctic Research Plan. iii |