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Part III. Appendix 4: User OutreachAnnex A: Solicitation toNatural Hazards CommunitiesDear Colleagues,Ocean.US, the national office for integrated and sustained ocean observation system (ISOOS), conveneda workshop in March 2002, which resulted in a report entitled: “An integrated and sustainedocean observing system for the US, Design and Implementation” (May 2002). This report is availableat the Oceans.US web site for those interested. The goals of ISOOS are to:1. improve the safety and efficiency of marine operations (marine ops),2. more effectively mitigate the effects of natural hazards (natural hazards),3. improve predictions of climate change and its effects on coastal populations (climate change),4. improve national security (national security),5. reduce public health risks (public health),6. more effectively protect and restore healthy coastal marine ecosystems (CM Ecosystems), and7. enable the sustained use of marine resources (sustained use).During this workshop a Data and Communications (DAC) Working Group (DACWG) was formedto develop a plan for the data and communications component of the ISOOS. The DACWG wasdivided into Expert and Outreach Teams. The User Outreach Team is to play two roles, (1) producethe community issues lists, and (2) serve as a communications clearinghouse for the other teamson identifying user groups, getting feedback from user groups and identifying their issues and relatedrequirements for the system. I have been selected to serve on the User Outreach Team andassigned the responsibility to develop an outline of user community-specific issues that a nationaldata and communications subsystem of the ISOOS would have to address in its development andoperations. I have been specifically assigned primary responsibility in the natural hazards (stormsurge and coastal flooding, coastal waves, tsunami, coastal erosion) area, with secondary responsibilityin marine operations.In the interest of obtaining input from the coastal engineering and the marine environmentalmodeling community I solicit your thoughts on user specific community issues. As a minimumI need the following: (1) brief explanation of natural hazards that would benefit from a ISOOS ,(2) the principal community of interest and their characteristics, (3) principal variables that arerequired, (4) issues of concern or attributes that are critical to the application (i.e. timely access todata, ease of access, accuracy, etc.).254