Professor Hans-Peter Marshall of Boise State University will present a Centre for Hydrology seminar titled
Combining ground-based microwave radar, airborne LiDAR, and energy balance modelling to estimate spatial variability of snow properties.
The seminar will take place on Wednesday 18th Deceber at 1pm in 144 Kirk Hall.
The Calgary Herald has reported on CH work which indicates that flooding in the Bow Valley of the magnitude experienced during June 2013 is likely to occur approximately once in 32 years in the Banff area, and once in 45 years through Calgary: this is much shorter than the 100-year return period for this scale of event currently adopted by the Alberta Ministry of Environment and Sustanable Resource Development.
In the article, Prof. John Pomeroy also points out that changing climatic conditions (winters in the Banff area are now some 5°C warmer than they were in the late 1800s) are making it challenging to predict events of this type, and this hampers development of appropriate mitigation strategies. He suggests that improved observation, modelling and warning systems are required, together with changes in property development guidelines and infrastructure upgrades.
The article is available in full here.
The supporting files for the CH-hosted R Lunch of Wednesday 27th November are available for download from the following URL:
http://usask.ca/hydrology/R-Lunch/RLunch_Nov27_2013.zip
The Zip-file contains folders / directories kindly provided byJill Johnstone and Sun Chun.
The work of CH staff during and since this past summer’s flooding events in Canmore and across Alberta are described in an article by Bob andford in the Fall 2013 issue of the U of S’s Arts & Science Magazine, available here.
John Pomeroy and Bob Sandford will present public talks in Canmore, Alberta in the Come Hell and High Water: Understanding Canada’s Changing Hydrology outreach event, hosted by the Town of Canmore and chaired by the Mayor of Canmore.
Pomeroy will discuss changes to hydrology and climate that have been occurring in the Canadian Rockies over the last century and the lead up to and progression of the extreme meteorological and hydrological event that became the flood of 2013.
Sandford will discuss how changes in hydroclimatic conditions will affect our society socially, economically and environmentally now and in the future.
The talks will be in the Canmore Collegiate High School Theatre starting 7 pm, Monday November 25th.
This month’s R Lunch will be on Wednesday November 27th in AGRI 1E85, from 11:30 to 12:30.
There will be two presentations:
Dr Jill Johnstone (Department of Biology) will present on spatial multivariate analyses using R.
Dr Sun Chun (Global Institute for Water Security) will demonstrate a new package called RGLIMCLIM (A multisite, multivariate daily weather generator based on Generalized Linear Models) which he uses for downscaling precipitation time series.
Bring your lunch and learn something new!
Files for the R-Lunch (dated 16th October) are available here:
http://usask.ca/hydrology/R-Lunch/Rlunch_Oct16-2013.zip
The Zip-file contains two folders / directories:
– FFA
– GrasshopperDemo
The Calgary Herald (8th October 2013) has published an ‘op-ed’ by Centre for Hydrology Director Professor John Pomeroy.
In the article, Prof. Pomeroy discusses options for reducing the risks of exposure to, and damage from, events such as this summer’s flooding in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba (which seem set to become Canada’s most expensive natural disaster).
He argues that improved prediction, avoidance and active mitigation should be integrated into a new Canadian national strategy, with hydrological science playing a key role.
The piece is available online here.
The Changing Cold Regions Network, led by the Global Institute for Water Security at the University of Saskatchewan, currently has several opportunities for research associates, post-doctoral fellows and PhD studentships: full details are available here.
The Globe and Mail has published an important commentary by Centre for Hydrology Fellow Bob Sandford, focusing on the recently-released Working Group 1 Report of the 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. The article is available here.
While it is generally accepted in science that global change is occurring and has a substantive anthropogenic cause, and while hydrologists are occupied with better understanding the atmospheric feedbacks and hydrological and water resource impacts of a changing atmosphere on the hydrological cycle and cryosphere, this call for attention and response to the science behind these changes is timely and needed in Canada.