This important document details a vision for how the federal govenment might restore Canada’s capacity to understand, measure, predict and sustainably manage our precious freshwater resources. It provides a history of Canada’s recent capabilities in respect of water, emerging threats to water and the needed national capacity to meet new challenges and opportunities that water presents.

John Pomeroy
Read more here!

Dr. Kevin Shook Appointed SGI Canada Research Fellow and DRI Research Scientist.

Dr. Kevin Shook, PhD, P.Eng. has been appointed the SGI Canada Research Fellow and will form the core of the SGI Canada Hydrometeorology Programme at the Centre for Hydrology. Dr. Shook will also contribute to the Drought Research Initiative (DRI) in respect to hydrological aspects of droughts and drought modelling. Dr. Shook is a graduate of the Division of Hydrology and Department of Agricultural and Bioresource Engineering at U of S and comes back to Saskatoon from a senior flood forecasting and hydrological modelling post with Alberta Environment in Edmonton. Dr. Shook’s research has included snowmelt modelling, fractal analysis of hydrological phenomena, flood modelling and extreme events analysis. His new research will focus on prairie hydrometeorology including drought, rainfall, flooding, and water supply under recent, current and future climates and on prairie hydrological modelling.
Welcome back to Saskatoon Kevin!

On Friday June 15th 2007 at 1:30 pm in the Agriculture Building foyer, an announcement ceremony was held in honor of SGI CANADA’s commitment to the Centre for Hydrology at the University of Saskatchewan – a donation which will enable greater understanding of prairie precipitation patterns in the face of climate change. The Honourable Lorne Calvert, Premier of Saskatchewan, Mr. Jon Shubert, President and CEO of SGI Canada, Dr. Peter MacKinnon Q.C., President, University of Saskatchewan, and Ms. Heather Magotiaux, Vice President University Advancement, University of Saskatchewan announed the SGI Canada Hydrometeorology Programme and SGI Canada Research Fellowship in Hydrometeorology at this ceremony. Further details on the SGI Canada Hydrometeorology Programme can be found under Research on the Centre for Hydrology website.

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At the Joint Congress of the Canadian Geophysical Union, Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, American Meteorological Society and Eastern Snow Conference, Gro Lilbaek of the Centre for Hydrology won the Campbell Scientific Award which was awarded by the ESC Research Committee to the paper demonstrating innovative technical expertise in data collection resulting in a superior oral or poster paper. Gro’s paper was titled ‘Meltwater Ion Enrichment Caused by Basal Ice Formation’ and was presented as an oral paper. Congratulations Gro for excellence in research!

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Kimberely Janzen, MSc student at Centre for Hydrology, is the recipient of this year’s Fred Heal Graduate Award for the Saskatchewan River Basin, from the College of Engineering.
Congratulations Kim on your efforts!

The research network IP3 is having its first meeting in Saskatoon October 19-20, 2006.

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AGU Release No. 06-19

Beavers, long known for their beneficial effects on the environment near their dams, are also critical to maintaining healthy ecosystems downstream. Researchers have found that ponds created by beaver dams raised downstream groundwater levels in the Colorado River valley, keeping soil water levels high and providing moisture to plants in the otherwise dry valley bottom.
Cherie Westbrook of Colorado State University and colleagues there and at the U.S. Geological Survey in Fort Collins, Colorado, conducted a three-year study in Rocky Mountain National Park, examining valley ecosystems downstream in the Colorado River. They noted that water diverted by beaver dams is forced out of the natural stream channel and spreads across and down the valley for hundreds of meters [yards]. In addition, dams built on the river changed the direction of groundwater flow in the valley. The changes caused water to infiltrate the river banks and flow underground toward the sides of the valley, instead of down the center of the valle … more.

Read more here at Science Daily and Denver Post.

Geography students did remarkably well in winning student awards at this year’s Canadian Geophysical Union annual meeting (May 14-17, 2006).

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Congratulation to Kim Janzen (MSc student) and Chris DeBeer (PhD student) for recieving the Deans Scholarhip.

Congratulation to Warren Helgason (Ph.D. student) and Nicholas Kinar (M.Sc. student) for being honoured with NSERC scholarships.