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The National Assessment was a core activity of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP). It was conducted within the National Science and Technology Council's framework, through its Committee on Environment and Natural Resources and its Subcommittee for Global Change Research (SGCR).
To assure a fully open process, the Assessment included both public and private sector partners across the spectrum of stakeholder interests in the U.S. The following describes the overall management framework of the National Assessment:
Organized under the framework of the NSTC's Committee on Environment and Natural Resources (CENR)
The parent body for the National Assessment within the U.S. Government was the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources (CENR), which is a subsidiary body of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), chaired by the President. See the Letter from Dr. John H. Gibbons, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology (dated 8 Jan 1998).
Responsibility delegated to the Subcommittee on Global Change Research (SGCR)
The CENR delegated responsibility for oversight to its Subcommittee on Global Change Research (SGCR), which is the parent committee for the USGCRP. The SGCR was charged with overall coordination, implementation, and sponsorship of the National Assessment process.
National Assessment Synthesis Team (NAST) for
Intellectual Oversight
The Synthesis Team provided overall intellectual oversight of the
National Assessment process and had specific responsibility for the
Synthesis Report, for defining national scenarios, for providing advice
and oversight of the sectoral analyses, and for recommending guidelines
for the regional analysis templates. The Synthesis Team was acommittee chartered under the Federal Advisory
Committee Act with members drawn from government, academia, and the private
sector. See:
National Assessment Working Group (NAWG) for
Federal Agency Coordination
Individual agencies, in cooperation with the SGCR's National Assessment
Working Group, had lead-responsibility for organizing and sponsoring the
regions and sectors. The Working Group had primary oversight and
coordination responsibility for the regional analyses which were sponsored
by individual agencies. See:
Inter-Regional Forum (IRF) for Transcending Issues
To help address issues and questions that transcended individual regions
(e.g., water resources, ecosystem migration), an Inter-Regional Forum was
established, consisting of leaders of the regional assessments. The
Inter-Regional Forum was charged with encouraging sharing of information,
methods, data, and findings across regions.
Review Panel to Ensure Procedural and Intellectual Integrity
To assure the rigor and integrity of the National Assessment process
and reports, a Review Panel was established. Specifically, this
oversaw the drafting and revision of the Synthesis Report, assessed the
overall quality and utility of the Synthesis Report, and assessed the
editorial responsiveness of the Synthesis Team to all comments received.
This includes high-level membership from public and private sectors.
National Assessment Coordination Office (NACO) for Logistical
Support and Coherence Across All Assessment Elements
Logistical support for the assessment process was provided by the
National Assessment Coordination Office (NACO). NACO helped
provide a framework within which the efforts of large numbers of local,
regional, and Federal participants interacted with the national
assessment process in ways that provided useful insights and results for
the National Synthesis, and to promoted development of stakeholder networks
that developed useful insights for their own local and regional
concerns, quite apart from any final report. See:
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