The Saskatoon Star Phoenix included an editorial in its issue of 21st June 2011 discussing the need for increased funding of hydrological research, in order to improve methods for predicting and mitigating the effects of climate change, and included mention of the IP3 and DRI networks.
This topic has been brought into particular focus by this spring’s severe flooding throughout the Prairie Provinces.
The article is available from the Star Phoenix site, or in PDF form here.
Author Archives: Jin
CH’s Marmot Creek Research Basin in the news
The 10 June 2011 edition of Canmore’s Rocky Mountain Outlook newspaper included an overview of the extreme variability in snowpack and melt behaviour observed in Marmot Creek and other sites through the Alberta Rockies this spring: the article is available here.
The same edition also profiled the PUB2011-P3 workshop held in May (here).
Chris Marsh wins prize at CGU
Congratulations to CH MSc student Chris Marsh, who has been awarded the D.M.Gray Award for Best Student Paper in Hydrology at the Canadian Geophysical Union this year, for his paper and talk Implication of mountain shading and topographic scaling on energy for snowmelt.
There was a large number of applicants and the papers and presentations were very strong, so this is a particularly significant feedback to Chris. CH Director Prof John Pomeroy comments “I am sure that Don Gray would be very happy with this”.
The paper is available for download here.
Presentations by Prospective GIWS Faculty
Presentations by candidates for faculty posts in the Global Institute for Water Security have been scheduled as follows:
Candidates for Post in Hydro-ecological Assessment or Modelling
Candidate 1
8:30 a.m., 24 May 2011: Room 144, Kirk Hall
Candidate 2
1:00 p.m., 31 May 2011: Room 2E25, Agriculture Building
Candidates for Post in Hydrometeorology and Climate Science
Candidate 1
1:00 p.m., 24 May 2011: Room 2E17, Agriculture Building
Candidate 2
11:00 a.m., 26 May 2011: Room 2E17, Agriculture Building
Candidate 3
1:00 p.m., 30 May 2011: Room 2E25, Agriculture Building
Candidates for Post in Statistical Hydrology and Stochastic Processes
Candidate 1
8:30 a.m., 27 May 2011: Room 2E17, Agriculture Building
Candidate 2
1:00 p.m., 7 June 2011: Room 2C01, Engineering Building
Candidate 3
1:00 p.m., 8 June 2011: Room 2C01, Engineering Building
A Q&A session will follow each presentation.
Canmore’s Rocky Mountain Outlook profiles CH ‘Principles of Hydrology’ course
CH / Canadian Rockies Snow & Ice Presentations: 14th April 2011
The Centre for Hydrology’s ‘Canadian Rockies Snow & Ice‘ initiative is partnering with the Western Watersheds Climate Research Collaborative and Interpretive Guides Association to present ‘Storm Warning: Emerging Issues in Water & Climate Science‘.
Presentations will provide a synopsis of recent advancements in glacial research and hydro-climatic science related to the interface between ice, water and the atmosphere, here in the Rockies and around the world.
The Forum will be moderated by Dr Ed Johnson, Director of the University of Calgary’s Biogeoscience Institute, and speakers will include Dr Mike Demuth (head of the Glaciology Division of the Geological Survey of Canada), Jocelyn Hirose (University of Calgary, glaciology), and Bob Sandford (EPCOR Chair in support of the United Nations Water for Life Decade in Canada). More information is available here.
The event will take place in the Canmore Collegiate High School Theatre at 7pm on Thursday, April 14th, 2011.
Global Institute for Water Security Launches
In the course of his presentation entitled Water Security and the Perfect Storm on United Nations World Water Day, March 22nd, Canada Excellence Research Chair Professor Howard Wheater announced the establishment of a new Global Institute for Water Security, to be based at the University of Saskatchewan.
Full details are available here
Water Week presentations now available online
Two hydrology-related presentations from the University of Saskatchewan’s Water Week are now available for online viewing:
Water Security and the Perfect Storm by Professor Howard Wheater, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Water Security
Climate Uncertainty: What it Means for Water Planning and Policy – recent results from Saskatchewan and Arizona by Professor John Pomeroy, Canada Research Chair in Water Resources and Climate Change, and Professor Patricia Gober, Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy
Star Phoenix Profiles CH Plans for Flood Research
March 25th – The Saskatoon Star Phoenix published an article highlighting planning by Professors John Pomeroy and Howard Wheater for a major Prairie research project this spring.
With near-record snowpacks persisting later than usual this year throughout much of the West, it’s envisaged that the imminent melt season may well provide a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity to observe and document a runoff – and potentially flood – event of the scale currently thought to be likely.
The article is available here.
Seminar – Dr Dennis Lettenmaier: Wednesday 23rd March at 10:30am
Dr Dennis Lettenmaier of the University of Washington will speak on the topic of ‘Unanswered questions in predicting the hydrologic impacts of climate change’, on Wednesday, March 23, 2011, from 10:30 to 11:30 am, in the Convocation Hall.
Here is an abstract of Dr Lettenmaier’s presentation:
From a societal perspective, changes in the land surface water cycle, perhaps aside from sea level rise, represent the most pervasive impacts of climate change. It is well established that increases in concentrations of greenhouse gases, most notably CO2 and CH4, will lead to increases in surface temperatures globally, and these effects are now evidenced in global observations. Furthermore, from first principles, increases in air temperature lead to higher atmospheric moisture, and in turn precipitation. Unfortunately, the implications of these global changes are much more difficult to unravel on a regional level, a problem that is compounded, from the standpoint of land surface hydrology, by the low skill of current generation climate models in representing precipitation. However, even absent these uncertainties, there remain key issues in our ability to represent land surface hydrologic sensitivities to a changing climate. Dr Lettenmaier will discuss three of these areas of uncertainty:
– In hydrologic model predictions of the precipitation and temperature sensitivities of annual runoff
– In the sensitivity of floods to changes in precipitation
– In the coupled interaction of atmospheric circulation and river runoff