CH is to play a leading role in a major new scientific initiative, the International Network for Alpine Research Catchment Hydrology (INARCH).

With the strong encouragement of CH director Professor John Pomeroy, plans for the network have been devised over the past three years, by a global team of scientists interested in the dynamics of mountain climates, glaciers, snow, hydrology and associated ecological systems. It is intended to provide a forum for collaborative research, with the aim of developing and sharing improved understanding of these fragile and extremely important environments.

Scientists from more than 25 government institutions, universities and non-governmental agencies in 15 countries, spanning North and South America, Europe and Asia, have so far committed to contribute to the network’s activities.

In an important recent development, the new initiative has been adopted as a key ‘cross-cutting’ project under the auspices of the GEWEX Hydroclimatology Panel. With GEWEX being the core project of the UN-sponsored World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), INARCH will operate among the highest levels of mountain research world-wide.

More information is provided in an article published in the Rocky Mountain Outlook, available in its original form here, and as an archive PDF here.

The Centre for Hydrology provided commentary for a US National Public Radio food show The salt – what’s on your plate that dealt with the consumption of snow – Snow is delicious. But is it dangerous to eat?

Technical input ranged from concerns on the concentrations of various contaminants in snow, the contribution of prairie dirt to blowing snow, to the atmospheric scrubbing qualities of snowfall to a snow hydrologist’s recipe for snow.

More details from the discussion are available here.

The University of Saskatchewan’s Global Institute for Water Security has posted a series of videos describing the wide range of water-related research being conducted throughout the Saskatchewan River Basin, many of which feature the activities of faculty and post-graduate students in the Centre for Hydrology. These vignettes also highlight a variety of ways in which climate and environmental change is affecting Canadian biomes and water resources. They are available for viewing here: http://www.usask.ca/water/saskrb/Videos.php.

Professor John Pomeroy was recently asked by the Calgary Herald for his thoughts on the likely risks to North American ski resorts of diminishing alpine snowpacks as a result of changing climatic conditions.

Both modelled projections of future snowpack, and trends derived from data gathered over recent decades, strongly indicate that there is a risk of many mountain ranges in the western USA and Canada moving into the transient snow zone, and that this is likely to occur well within the coming century.

The article is available in its original form here, and as a PDF here.

CH Post-Doctoral Fellow Dr Colin Whitfield, together with CH’s Dr Cherie Westbrook and colleagues from the Global Institute for Water Security and School of Environment and Sustainability, recently published a research paper describing the environmental ramifications of beaver population recoveries around the globe.

The paper, in The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences’ journal AMBIO, is available here: releases describing the new knowledge it has generated are available from Springer, and from the U of S Media Relations office (here and here).

The National Post also ran an article on the paper in its December 19th issue, here.

CBC’s documentary program The Nature of Things has produced an episode called Chasing Snowflakes, which features The Centre for Hydrology’s research in the Canadian Rockies: it will air on Thursday, Nov. 13^th at 8pm on CBC TV local channels.

More information is available on the epoisode’s web-page, here.

Professor John Pomeroy has been invited to chair sessions and present at the UNESCO International Workshop on Climate Change Impacts on Snow, Glacier and Water Resources: Multidisciplinary Network for Adaptation Strategies (www) to be held 6-7 November at the International Centre for Water Resources and Global Change in Koblenz, Germany.

Pomeroy’s talk will be on Alpine snow hydrology and the International Network for Alpine Research Catchment Hydrology – water towers for the world. The talk will outline the activities of a new collaborative research network led by Pomeroy, INARCH – the International Network for Alpine Research Catchment Hydrology.

Research contributing to INARCH is taking place in the Americas, Europe and Asia and is demonstrating the tremendous sensitivity of alpine water supplies to climate warming. By better observations and modelling of mountain snowpacks and their melt, INARCH hopes to identify the most vulnerable mountain snowpacks and the implications of their loss for downstream water supplies.

The Workshop will inform UN climate change policy and the International Hydrological Programme activities relating to sustainable water supply. The UN’s overall aim for the Workshop is to connect scientific research, policy development and action, and identify recommendations to enhance the interface between science and policy to develop sustainable adaptation strategies.

The University of Saskatchewan Centre for Hydrology has contributed two chapters to Global Chorus, a collection of 365 perspectives on the environmental future of the planet.

John Pomeroy, director and Bob Sandford, fellow have written contributions on climate change and hydrology that are frank assessments of the challenges imposed by excessive greenhouse gases and the global water crisis from the perspective of research in western Canada and elsewhere.

Contributors to the book are from around the world and include Nelson Mandela, Stephen Hawking, the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mikhail Gorbachev, Jane Goodall, John Ralston Saul, Farley Mowat and many others. Global Chorus is being published this month by Rocky Mountain Books: more details are available at http://globalchorus.ca

Author Ed Struzik has written an article on the loss of snow and glaciers in the Canadian Rockies and how this threatens water resources in Western Canada. The article highlights some research results from the Centre for Hydrology and allied researchers in western Canada. It is available online here.

Research at the Fortress Mountain Snow Laboratory of the Canadian Rockies Hydrological Observatory was highlighted in a recent article in the Rocky Mountain Outlook.

The article described a day in the field with Dr Jonathan Conway, Postdoctoral Fellow with the Centre for Hydrology and his field research on the energetics of mountain snowmelt. Dr Conway’s postdoctoral research, which is supervised by Dr Warren Helgason of the Dept of Civil and Geological Engineering and Dr John Pomeroy, will advance our understanding of turbulent and radiative transfer to alpine snowpacks and glaciers. The Canadian Rockies Hydrological Observatory, funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, is now almost completely installed.