This year the seventh annual Canadian Geophysical Union – Hydrology Section (CGU-HS) Prairies student conference was held on January 26th at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon. Overall, the conference was attended by over 40 people from the National Hydrology Research Centre in Saskatoon, the University of Alberta, the University of Calgary, the University of Lethbridge and the University of Saskatchewan. A full list of talks and their corresponding written abstracts are provided below (or at inserted link). Funding for this event was provided by the Department of Geography of the University of Saskatchewan as well as the CGU-HS.

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Photograph taken by John Pomeroy. Click on it for larger version.

By Mari-Louise Rowley

Saskatchewan has always been known for its extreme weather and highly variable water supplies. Lately, however, the extremes have become more severe and less predictable.
In 2007, the spring snow melt set records in east central Saskatchewan, while a drought developed in the southwest. August was one of the coldest and wettest on record in parts of the province. Flooding destroyed homes and communities and ruined crops—if the intense heat in July hadn’t already burnt them.
University of Saskatchewan hydrologist John Pomeroy is trying to decipher why this is happening and how we can best cope with the effect of climate change on water resources.
“Saskatchewan agriculture is set up for extremes already, as every farmer has had to deal with drought or floods at various times,” says Pomeroy. “Our interest in climate change is in understanding how it causes these extreme variations in water supply and weather.”
The Canada Research Chair in Water Resources and Climate Change and director of the U of S Centre for Hydrology says his team’s work will help cities, farmers and industry plan and prepare for the effect of extreme weather on water resources.

Read the full article here.

by Lynn Martel, Rocky Mountain Outlook

There’s water in them thar hills, and scientists are diligently working and thinking up new ways to measure, estimate and predict just how water is stored in mountain landscape.
More than 60 scientists, along with consultants and representatives of utility and power companies, non-profit organizations and provincial and federal governments, gathered at the Radisson Hotel and Conference Centre last week to share information and ideas about how to determine how much water is stored in Canada’s cold weather regions. They were participants at a workshop hosted by the Canmore-based Western Watersheds Climate Research Collaborative titled IP3: Prediction of Water Resources in Mountain and Northern Canada.

Read the full article here.

Kimberely Janzen and Erin Shaw (both MSc students) are the co-recipients of this year’s Fred Heal Graduate Award from the College of Engineering, for their research on water resources in the Saskatchewan River Basin! Congratulations to you both!

Robert Armstrong, PhD student in the Centre for Hydrology and Department of Geography won the ESRI Canada Student Scholarship Award in November 2007 to assist in his research using GIS to calculate spatial variability of evaporation over prairie landscapes. The award includes a cash prize as well as a wide range of complimentary software. Congratulations Robert!