Lunchtime Seminar on IP3 Modelling – Friday 7 October

The Centre for Hydrology is pleased to present a hydrology seminar by Muluneh Mekonnen, IP3 Post-Doc, from 12:30 to 1:15pm on Friday 7 October 2011, in AGRI 1E69, entitled IP3’s combined top-down and bottom-up modelling approach using MESH and CRHM as complementary modelling platforms
The IP3 (Improving Processes and Parameterization for Prediction in Cold Regions Hydrology) network came to a successful end in September 2011, leaving a legacy of extensive cold regions processes, parameterization and prediction research work.
IP3’s strategic goal was to attain a more comprehensive physical description of cold regions processes and parameterizations, at regional and smaller scales, for improved prediction within hydrological and hydro-meteorological models such as the Cold Regions Hydrological Model (CRHM) and the Community Environmental Hydrology Land-Surface modelling system, known as MESH.
This seminar presents an application of the combined top-down and bottom-up hydrological modelling approach, using MESH and CRHM as complementary modelling platforms, for the South Saskatchewan River Basin (SSRB) and the Upper Assiniboine River Basin (UARB). In addition to cold regions processes, the SSRB and UARB are characterized by the prairie pothole topography that brings in the additional complexity of shrinking and expanding horizontal flow contributing areas.
The seminar will highlight two key points:
1) How to build a model with relatively minimal complexity whose prediction is commensurate with observations, and
2) How to use the Grouped Response Units approach for physically based parameter regionalization.
Feel free to bring your lunch!

Bob Sandford Lecture on Water Policy – GIWS, 7 Oct 2011

The Global Institute for Water Security is pleased to present a lecture by Bob Sandford, EPCOR Chair of the Canadian Partnership Initiative in support of the UN Water for Life Decade, on October 7, 2011.
The lecture, entitled Northern Voices, Southern Choices: Water policy lessons for Saskatchewan drawn from leading Canadian and international examples will begin at 1:45 pm in Room 144 Kirk Hall.
The presentation will be followed by a panel discussion featuring Howard Wheater (Global Institute for Water Security and SENS), Patricia Gober (Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy), and John Pomeroy (Centre for Hydrology and Department of Geography and Planning). More details here.

CH students’ Trans-Canada epic

Centre for Hydrology alumni Nathalie Brunet and Ross Phillips have been taking part in an epic 7000km trans-national adventure, taking them from Vancouver BC to Saint John NB.
Travelling since April, largely by canoe, sometimes by bike (with boats trailered), and even portaging through high mountains on snowshoes, they hope to arrive on the right-hand side of the country sometime over the next few weeks.
The trek was awarded a $25,000 Expedition of the Year grant from the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, and is also receving funding from the RBC Blue Water Project.
They are hoping to use the trip to raise awareness of the importance of Canada’s freshwater resources, and to draw attention to the work done by both the Canadian Heritage River System and the Nature Conservancy of Canada.
Details of the trip are updated regularly on the team’s blog / website: they were also interviewed in Ottawa by the CBC.