The 11th annual Western Canada CGU Hydrology Section student conference will be held at the University of Saskatchewan on February 11th, 2012.
Abstracts (max 250 words) are invited for oral presentations by CGU members, by January 25th, 2012.
More information about the event – including details of how to submit your abstract – is available here
Author Archives: Jin
CH News from the AGU 2011 Fall Meeting
Two items of CH-related news from the AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco, California, December, 2011:
Dr Phil Marsh, an Adjunct Professor in the Centre for Hydrology, and Research Scientist and Project Chief in Environment Canada, was honoured by the American Geophysical Union as author of one of the top 5 papers in the journal Water Resources Research.
Marsh and co-author Dr Lance Lesack from Simon Fraser University received this award for their article entitled River-to-lake connectivities, water renewal, and aquatic habitat diversity in the Mackenzie River Delta.
Nicholas Kinar, who was named in July as winner of the prestigious Horton Research Grant, was formally recognized by the AGU at its Hydrology Section Luncheon at. Together with Prof. John Pomeroy, Nicholas presented a poster at the meeting entitled Acoustic Imaging and Analysis of Snowpack Physical Properties.
Centre for Hydrology / CSHS Principles of Hydrology short course, March 2012
The Centre for Hydrology and Canadian Society for Hydrological Sciences will again be holding their popular short course in Physical Principles of Hydrology in the Kananaskis Valley, Alberta, from March 1-12, 2012.
The course is intended for hydrology and water resources graduate students and early to midlevel career water resource engineers, hydrologists, aquatic ecologists and technologists from Canada who are either working directly in hydrology and water resources or are looking to broaden their understanding of hydrological systems and processes.
Factors governing hydrological processes within the context of distinctly Canadian landscape features will be discussed. Students will be exposed to an overview of each subject, with recent scientific findings and new cutting edge theories, tools and techniques, through a combination of classroom sessions at the University of Calgary’s Biogeoscience Institute’s Barrier Lake Station, and fieldwork at the Marmot Creek Research Basin.
Students will emerge from the course with a deeper understanding of physical hydrological processes and how they interact to produce catchment water budgets and streamflow response, together with state-of-the-art field instrumentation and measurement techniques.
More information is available here, or from Dr Chris Spence or Dr John Pomeroy
Take on the Drought Game!
Andrew Ireson, Assistant Professor in Subsurface Hydrology with the School of Environment and Sustainability and the Global Institute for Water Security, is keen to hear from grad. students who may be interested in participating in an Invitational Drought Tournament.
This is a game in which students from U of Alberta, U of Regina and U of Saskatchewan will form multi-disciplinary teams, consisting of approximately five players. Having chosen their initial conditions or ‘preparedness strategies’, teams will be guided through a simulated multi-year drought scenario of unknown length and severity, throughout which they will work collaboratively to discuss and select adaptation options that should help them better prepare for, adapt to, respond to, and recover from the drought’s impacts. The chosen strategies should maximize economic benefits and reduce social and ecological stress. More details are given here, in a description of a similar tournament held last year.
The game will take place in late February / early March of 2012. At this stage, Andrew is looking to find out who is interested in participating. This is all about decision-making under pressure, with finite resources, focusing on minimizing environmental impacts of droughts, which are one of the most expensive, devastating natural disasters in the Canadian prairies (billion dollar impacts). It should also be great fun – it’s a game after all. If you think you would like to take part, or if you have any questions or comments please get in touch with Andrew.
Sandford – Saskatchewan needs a water strategy
In his GIWS-sponsored presentation of October 7 2011, Northern Voices, Southern Choices: Water policy lessons for Saskatchewan drawn from leading Canadian and international examples, Bob Sandford, EPCOR Chair of the Canadian Partnership Initiative in support of the UN Water for Life Decade, made a strong case for the need for new thinking on water strategies for Saskatchewan. Major pressures are already being felt as a result of a combination of effects, including climate change, increased water use, and other environmental pressures, and these are likely only to intensify.
The StarPhoenix included a synopsis of the lecture on 8 October 2011, available here, and Bob was interviewed by CBC TV.
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.
Nicholas Kinar wins AGU Horton Research Grant
Congratulations to Centre for Hydrology PhD student, Nicholas Kinar, who is one of two recipients of the American Geophysical Union Horton Research Grant in 2011.
There were 70 applicants for the grant, so it is a very prestigious award and will contribute to Nicholas’ research on acoustic imaging of snowpacks.
The AGU will recognize Nicholas at its Hydrology Section Luncheon at the AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco, California Dec 5-9 2011.
The full press release from the AGU is available here
IP3 Triple-Header Finale!
With funding for the IP3 network – which has been headquartered at CH – to end in September 2011, a series of workshops has been scheduled to share final results with the larger cold regions hydrology and water resources communities. These will focus on the advances made by the network in scientific understanding and modelling capability.
Program of Events:
Cold Regions Hydrological Model (CRHM) Training Course
Wednesday September 7th, 9am to 5pm
Advance registration required: participation limited to a maximum of 30 people.
MEC, Surface and Hydrology (MESH) / Canadian Land Surface Scheme (CLASS) Training Course
Thursday September 8th, 9am to 5pm
Advance registration required: participation limited to a maximum of 30 people.
IP3 Reception
Thursday September 8th, 5:30pm
Reception for IP3 Network participants, supporters, and course participants.
IP3 Final Results Workshop
Friday September 9th, 9am to 3pm
A final presentation of IP3 network scientific results, followed by a discussion on implications for the future development of public policy on water issues.
To register, or for more information, please contact Nadine at nadine.kapphahn@usask.ca, advising which workshop(s) you wish to attend.