Former Banff National Park Superintendent, Kevin van Tighem, has written a comprehensive article on the need for source water protection in the headwaters of the Saskatchewan River Basin and published it in the July edition of Alberta Views magazine.
The article reviews the pressures on watershed management from various land uses and from climate change in the context of recent research results from the Centre for Hydrology’s Marmot Creek Research Basin. It then recommends scientifically guided forest management in the headwaters to provide for greater water security.
Van Tighem attended a Biogeoscience Institute led short-course on Mountain Headwaters and Climate Change in July 2012 that included a component on Marmot Creek.
Marmot Creek Research Basin has celebrated 50+ years since its founding this year and also has sustained substantial change and loss of measurement stations as a result of the June floods . Van Tighem’s article was written before the floods and is particularly prescient on the need to protect mountain watersheds from fluvial erosion.
Daily Planet Covers CH Science
The Discovery Channel’s Daily Planet has broadcast a segment focusing on the Centre for Hydrology’s work, in the wake of this summer’s flooding in Alberta.
Comprising part of the program’s Disaster Week, the piece aired on Tuesday September 3rd.
More detail is provided by August 24th’s Calgary Herald, here: the video itself is available here.
CH members in demand by media for views on Canmore and Alberta Floods
Staff and students from the U. of S. Centre for Hydrology and Global Institute for Water Security, both based at and visiting the Coldwater Lab. in the Kananaskis Valley, experienced the extreme flooding event in the area over the week of 17-23 June: a gallery of their pictures is available from the CH website, here.
CH Director Prof. John Pomeroy – who found himself hosting a housefull of evacuees and stranded travellers at his home in Canmore – has been in great demand from the media for his views on the event;
Calgary Herald, 20 August:
Long-term solutions sought to prevent Canmore flooding
Calgary Herald, 30 July:
Experts say all flooded homes should be included in recovery plans
Calgary Herald, 20 July:
Wildrose Rains Criticism on Tories over Flooding
Calgary Herald, 17 July:
Study warned three years ago of more intense flooding due to climate change
The Gazette, Colorado Springs. 12 July:
Colorado fires and Canadian flooding–connected?
Calgary Herald, 12 July:
City of Calgary engineers seeking advice on permanent flood-control measures
CBC TV, 11 July:
The National
CBC Web, 11 July:
Devastating floods change Alberta’s landscape forever
CBC Radio 1, 11 July:
The World at Six
CTV Saskatoon, 5 July:
Accuracy of flood forecast called into question
Edmonton Journal, 4 July:
Albertans have become naturals at dealing with disasters
Calgary Herald, 2 July:
Recovering Canmore to consider ways to repair Cougar Creek
Calgary Herald, 29 June:
Rare ‘rain-on-snow’ event contributed to Canmore deluge
Editorial: Manitoba-style floodway not for Calgary
Calgary Herald, 28 June:
Alberta must do a ‘much better job of forecasting’ after failing to sound flood alarm early
CBC Radio, 27 June:
The Current: AB Floods: Are we ready for the next one?
Rocky Mountain Outlook, 27 June
Colorado fires brought Bow Valley rain
News Talk 650 Radio, 27 June:
Rockies, flood plains will need to be re-mapped
Calgary Herald, 26 June:
Province was ‘ill-prepared’ for flood, water experts say
The Tyee, 26 June:
Authorities ‘Caught Flatfooted’ on Alberta Flood Disaster: Expert
660 Radio, 25 June:
Calls for flood defences in Southern Alberta to be bolstered
CBC Manitoba, 25 June:
Alberta floodwaters head to Manitoba
CBC Radio, 25 June:
As It Happens
Global TV News, 24 June:
Alberta government failed to act on flood prevention report
Calgary Herald, 24 June:
Flooding has changed the Rockies forever, says scientist
Syndicated:
Saskatoon Star Phoenix, 24 June
Huffington Post, 24 June
CTV, 25 June
CBC Calgary, 24 June:
The EyeOpener
Maclean’s, 24 June:
Climate change and the Alberta flood
Calgary Herald, 24 June:
‘Utter destruction’ leaves campgrounds a mess ahead of long weekend
CBC Saskatchewan, 24 June:
Blue Sky speaks with scientist caught in the flood
Saskatoon Star Phoenix, 22 June:
Sask. residents stranded in Alta.
Saskatoon Star Phoenix, 22 June:
Disaster plan for nation wise
CBC, 22 June:
Why Alberta’s floods hit so hard and fast
CTV, 22 June:
Alberta underwater: The 4 factors that led to massive flooding
Calgary Herald, 21 June:
Update: Bow Valley residents living their worst nightmares
CTV News, 21 June:
Southern Alberta’s flooded communities face more rain through weekend
CBC, 21 June:
Alberta residents describe what they’re seeing
It’s also worth reading what has proven to be a remarkably prescient piece on environmental hazards in Canmore, from the Calgary Herald of 29 May:
Alberta urged to prepare for increasingly severe weather as insurance losses mount.
CH Member (and another Canmore resident) Bob Sandford, Director of the Western Watersheds Research Collaborative, and Chair of the Canadian Partnership Initiative, United Nations Water for Life Decade, has also been busy:
CBC Radio, 24 July:
Alberta Noon
CBC Radio, 29 June:
Daybreak Alberta (Hour 3)
AM980 Vancouver, 27 June:
The Bill Good Show
AM640 Talk Radio, 26 June:
The Real Estate Talk Show
CBC Radio, 25 June:
BC Almanac
CTV2 Alberta, 25 June:
Alberta PrimeTime: Predicting Floods in Alberta
CTV, 22 June:
News video
Expedition Arguk Explores the North
Jason Mercer, an MSc student with CH Prof. Cherie Westbrook, is participating in Expedition Arguk, which will see a small team of five scientists and media experts hike and packraft 300 miles, from the Gates of the Arctic to the Arctic Ocean. There are no trails and no roads, only a few towns scattered through a vast wilderness area eight times the size of Switzerland.
Despite the remoteness of the region, however, profound changes are underway. Petroleum exploration and drilling, and the effects of climate change itself, are having a profound impact on the landscape. The expedition’s goal is to implement the most creative and effective ways to spread awareness and understanding of this rapidly-changing corner of the world.
More information is available from the expedition’s website – expeditionarguk.com.
New Glacier Observation Station – The Movie
CH Research Technician Angus Duncan shot a series of time-lapse sequences over two days in July 2013, during the construction of a new hydrometeorological and snow observing station which forms part of the Canadian Rockies Hydrological Observatory, just off the toe of the Peyto Glacier in Banff National Park.
The station will measure air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, solid and liquid precipitation, snow depth, soil temperature, soil moisture, snow temperature at 20cm and 150cm depth, and incoming and outgoing longwave and shortwave radiation. Before the onset of winter the solar panel and rain gauge will be moved higher, so that they’re above the snow surface, and a dielectric device will be installed to measure snow density and wetness. A time-lapse camera is also directed at the glacier taking 2 photos per day.
The video is available on Vimeo.
Climate change impacts on Yukon hydrology studied by Centre for Hydrology
The Centre for Hydrology, along with Yukon Environment and McMaster University, is studying the impact of a changing climate on the hydrology of the Yukon Territory. The study is using the Wolf Creek Research Basin as a modelling laboratory to improve and validate the Cold Regions Hydrological Model for multi-year simulation of changing snow and permafrost conditions in the north, and exploring how these impact the quantity and timing of streamflow. CH Research Officer Tyler Williams is based in Whitehorse, Yukon to assist with this study and was featured in a recent edition of the Yukon News: the article is available here. Modelling for the project is being conducted by Kabir Rasouli, who is based at the CH Coldwater Laboratory in Kananaskis.
CH to host R Course
There was excellent demand from across the country for the R Course at the CGU/CWRA meeting, but many from the U. of S. were unable to make it – so the Centre for Hydrology is giving an informal Introduction to R for Hydrologists class in late August for U. of S. faculty, staff and students who would like to start using this highly productive toolset in their hydrological calculations.
By Whom? Dr Kevin Shook, a research scientist with the Centre, who gave part of the R class to CGU
For Whom? Open only to U. of S. faculty, staff and students
How many? The first 80 people through the door will get a place!
When? Begins 9am, Thursday August 29th: continues all day
Where? Room 144 of Kirk Hall
In the spirit of open source software, the course will be
i) Free – no registration required
ii) Unofficial
iii) Open to any member of U. of S. faculty, staff or student body
The course will cover the following topics:
1. Getting started
– what R is and how it works
– getting and installing R
– getting help
– using the command line
– using the GUI
2. Using R
– data types
– commands
– importing/exporting data
– doing calculations
3. Graphs
– simple graphs
– special purpose graphs
– exporting graphs
– advanced graphing with ggplot2
4. Commonly used commands
– common statistical functions
– dealing with bad/missing data
– subsetting data
– aggregating data
5. Advanced
– linear models (regressions)
– writing R functions
– debugging
– accessing WISKI data from R
No background in R or programming is required. The course will be taught with demonstrations, so you are strongly encouraged to bring your laptop and work along. There is no credit or examination associated with this informal course – you will get out of it what you put into it.
You can download R from cran.stat.sfu.ca, and should load it and try it out before the course. R is most easily used with a GUI: probably the easiest and best is RStudio.
Rosenberg International Forum on Water Policy – Special Announcement
The Rosenberg International Forum on Water Policy has released its latest report based on the findings of a 2012 workshop on water management challenges in the Mackenzie River Basin.
The workshop, which took place in Vancouver from September 5 to 7, 2012, convened several experts in the fields of hydrology, law, economics, and biology with the goal of looking at the legal and scientific principles relevant to creating a co-ordinated basin-wide approach to management. John Pomeroy and Robert Sandford from the Centre for Hydrology contributed to writing the report. The workshop was co-hosted by the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation and Simon Fraser University’s Adaptation to Climate Change Team.
It concludes that hydrological regimes and the environment of the Basin are at risk from global warming and that the water and ecosystems of the Basin are globally important and require Basin residents and Canada to assume full stewardship responsibilities for the Basin. The Report recommends mandatory posting of significant performance bonds on the part of extractive industries wishing to operate in the Basin, increased water monitoring throughout the Basin, incorporation of local and enhanced scientific knowledge in decision making, re-invigorating the Mackenzie River Basin Board, and the use of the precautionary principle for developments and actions which could adversely affect the region. The Report can be downloaded here.
These details were also reported by the CBC, as visible online here, and Professor Pomeroy was interviewed about the report by CBC Radio 1’s The Trailbreaker and CBC TV News. Bob Sandford also contributed to a CTV News piece.
Cold Regions Hydrological Modelling Course – September 2013
The Centre for Hydrology will be running a course in Cold Regions Hydrological Modelling for U. of S. Graduate Students, from the 4th to the 5th of September 2013. Department approval is required, and the course must be taken for credit.
The course will aim to familiarize students with the principles of object-oriented physically-based hydrological process modelling for the cold regions of western and northern Canada, and train students to use the Cold Regions Hydrological Modelling Platform (CRHM) to create purpose built hydrological models that are appropriate for hydrological prediction problems in western and northern Canada.
On completion, students should be able to describe which physical process algorithms are most appropriate for modelling forested, prairie, mountain and arctic river basins under various levels of meteorological and parameter data availability, and use CRHM to construct and run an appropriate hydrological model for small river basins in western and northern Canadian environments.
More information, including pre-requisite qualifications and details of how to register, is available online here, and also in PDF format.
Snowmelt – The Movie!
Centre for Hydrology MSc (and soon to be PhD) student Phillip Harder has captured a fascinating sequence through the late and rapid melt of deep snowpack near Rosthern, SK (here), between 5 April and 15 May 2013.
The melt generated a sudden and impressive runoff response, which was captured by Phillip’s 30-minute time-lapse photography. The video is available here.