The Globe and Mail recently  interviewed Centre for Hydrology director Professor John Pomeroy, and reported on CH research in a call for greater consideration of the impacts of water, floods and drought on the economy.

The article is available here.

MSc student Emily Anderson’s work in the Britnell-Bologna Icefield (North-West Territories), researching its rapid melting due to warmer coniditions, and the resultant impact on regional water availability, has been covered by CBC News and Yale University’s Environment360 magazine. This study, in collaboration with Mike Demuth of the Geological Survey of Canada (and also a CH member), contributes to the Changing Cold Regions research network.

CH Director Prof. John Pomeroy was asked recently by the Calgary Herald to comment on the wisdom of siting a proposed new CalgaryNext arena for the Calgary Flames on the banks of the Bow River.

Prof. Pomeroy commented that – given the widespread impact of flooding throughout Calgary in June 2013 from what was likely less than a 1:50 year event, and the prospect of future events of greater severity and even magnification of these events by climate change – this seemed a surprising and possibly hazardous choice for the site. Ideally any development in the floodplain should be establishment of parks or similar land uses that would not sustain damage from flooding. This has created some discussion in the community that is described in the following articles –

• Water expert astonished by proposed location of CalgaryNEXT along Bow River
  Original     PDF archive
• City councillor aggravated by CalgaryNEXT floodplain concerns
  Original     PDF archive
• Wikipedia – CalgaryNEXT
  URL

In the wake of the past week’s severe storms in Calgary and throughout much of southern Alberta, Global News has asked CH director Professor John Pomeroy for his views on the likelihood of increasingly severe and frequent storms as a result of climate-change. The article, posted online on 6th August, is available here.

CH director Professor John Pomeroy has been asked by a number of media outlets to contribute insights relating to the drought conditions developing across much of western Canada this summer, and associated widespread wildfire activity. These concerns are being driven by the past winter’s low snowpacks, followed by early spring melt and premature peak flows, which have been linked to unprecedented regional weather patterns and probable long-term climate change.

The articles and videos are listed here, ordered from newest to oldest;

• Bloomberg Business News, 26th August 2015: Snowy Canada Suffers Drought, Heat, Fires as Earth Gets Warmer
• CBC Radio, 4th August 2015: Melting glaciers and drought in Alberta’s future – Hydrologist warns of hotter, drier times with lack of mountain snow (associated audio available here and here)
• Bow Valley Crag and Canyon, 29th July 2015: Mountain parks feeling effects from drought
• The StarPhoenix, 27th July 2015 (also available as PDF): Wise to Plan for Drier West
• Globe and Mail, 17th July 2015: Crop expert Norm Hall on how drought is hurting Prairie farmers
• The StarPhoenix, 11th July 2015 (also available as PDF): River levels bottom-out
• The Weather Network, 6th July 2015: Developing drought conditions
• National Observer, 6th July 2015: Experts voice fears for B.C.’s climate future, as western wildfires rage
• CTV News Calgary, 22nd June 2015: Farmers fear dry conditions could spell drought this summer
• CTV News, 20th June 2015: Developing Drought Risk in Western Canada
• CBC News, 16th June 2015: California’s drought offers Canada lessons in crisis prevention
• iPolitics / The Sprout, 15th June 2015: Western Canada may be in for long-term drought
• Globe and Mail, 14th June 2015: Signs of drought appear to be in Western Canada for the long term
• News Talk 980, 5th June 2015: North American droughts and floods linked, Sask. expert
• CBC News, 11th May 2015: Flood mitigation must consider droughts as well, says water expert
• Calgary Herald, 9th April 2015: Low snowpack could lead to summer water shortages
• Globe and Mail, 13th March 2015: Warmer weather in Alberta and B.C.’s mountains creating shorter ski season

Canmore’s Rocky Mountain Outlook of 29th July 2015 has published an article profiling CH’s current work on the Athabasca Glacier in Jasper National Park. The research, conducted within the framework of the Canadian Rockies Hydrological Observatory (CRHO), aims to obtain observations of atmospheric conditions close to the ice surface, which may in turn be related to rates of melting and retreat by the glacier. This will also permit comparisons to be made with conditions affecting other glaciers in the area, such as the already greatly reduced Peyto Glacier in Banff National Park, further to the south.

CH’s Dr Jono Conway at the Athabasca Glacier
(Photo – Lynn Martell)

The article is available from the RMO site, here.

While preoccupations focus this year on the likely onset of drought conditions, CH Director Professor John Pomeroy was asked to contribute a scientific perspective on proposed flood-mitigation measures as part of a river tour organized recently by the Elbow River Watershed Partnership, as part of their annual general meeting.

Prof. Pomeroy re-iterated the importance of improvements to seasonal and severe weather predictions; precise forecasting for water bodies and groundwater; improved responses to impending floods; avoiding land use and development in floodplains; and the expansion (where necessary) of physical flood-control structures, in conjunction with the development of appropriate watershed management practices.

More information about the AGM and river tour is available from this article in the Cochrane Times.

CH MSc student Emily Anderson has been awarded a $15,000 W. Garfield Weston Award for Northern Research by the Canadian Northern Studies Trust (CNST), a scholarship program administered by the Association of Canadian Universities for Northern Studies (ACUNS).

Congratulations, Emily!

Nicolas Leroux, PhD student in the Centre for Hydrology, part of the Department of Geography & Planning at the University of Saskatchewan, has won the 2015 Wiesnet Medal for best overall student paper at the Eastern Snow Conference in Sherbrooke, Quebec.

Student papers from across North America on aspects of snow, ice, glaciers, hydrology and climate were presented at the meeting. Mr Leroux presented the paper A dual pathway heterogeneous flow snow model at the 72^nd Annual Eastern Snow Conference and was awarded the Weisnet Medal at the ESC banquet at the Jouvence Centre, near Sherbrooke on June 10^th. The paper and presentation documented an advanced physically based approach to modelling 2D preferential flow through melting snowpacks that has great promise. Well done Nicolas!

CH member Dr Cherie Westbrook is the project leader for a new water security training program, established at the U. of S. through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council’s Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) scheme. The aim of the initiative is to provide a multi-disciplinary grounding for graduate students and post-doctoral fellows in issues such as water resources, floods, drought and water quality.

The program will receive $1.65 million of NSERC funding over the next six years, and over $2.8 Million from the U. of S., the University of Waterloo, University of Calgary, University of Manitoba, and McMaster University, and from industrial collaborators.

More information is available here.