Seminar – 20 March, 2:30pm

The Centre for Hydrology will host a seminar by Dr Kevin Devito, of the University of Alberta’s Department of Biological Sciences, entitled Generalizing groundwater-surface water interactions in riparian interfaces on heterogeneous landscapes – Canada’ s Boreal Plain, on Wednesday 20 March at 2:30pm in Room 144 Kirk Hall.

GIWS Public Lecture for World Water Day

To mark both World Water Day and the first two years of the Global Institute for Water Security’s existence,
Professor Howard Wheater, GIWS Director and Canada Excellence Research Chair in Water Security, will host a public lecture entitled Water Security in Western Canada: Progress and Prospects.
The event (for which the official notice is available here) is to take place from 4 to 6pm on Friday 22nd March, in the Convocation Hall, Peter MacKinnon Building.

Centre for Hydrology In The News

Centre for Hydrology Director Professor John Pomeroy has been asked to contribute insights to several recent newspaper issues;
In the Calgary Herald (March 4th), a piece focused on the unusual rain-on-snow event which led to flooding in the upper Bow River Valley in early June of 2012, and commented on the likely environmental effects of a changing climate in the mountains, foothils and prairies. It also included mention of the recent Marmot Creek Workshop, which was organized by CH.
Other articles, published in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix and Regina Leader Post of March 2nd, looked at the role of – and need for – hydrologists, and current prospects for those joining the profession.

Postdoctoral Fellow Opportunity: Water Resource Systems

The Global Institute for Water Security and the Department of Civil and Geological Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan are seeking applicants for a postdoctoral position in water resource systems.
The successful candidate will contribute to the development of a basin-wide water resource systems modelling framework using optimization-based and simulation-based techniques: this project seeks to
– Integrate socioeconomic and hydrological aspects of water resources;
– Introduce anthropogenic impacts into large scale watershed hydrology;
– Develop tools which facilitate negotiations and decision-making, and reflect the input of researchers, policy makers, and water users.
Full details of the competition are available at
http://www.usask.ca/hydrology/downloads/GIWS_WRS_PDF_Feb2013.pdf

Graduate Student Wins Outstanding Student Paper Award from American Geophysical Union

Chris Marsh won the Outstanding Student Paper Award from the American Geophysical Union at its Fall Meeting in San Francisco, California in December 2012 for his presentation Implications of mountain shading on calculating energy for snowmelt using unstructured triangular meshes, based on his MSc thesis in the Centre for Hydrology, Dept. of Geography & Planning. Chris is currently a PhD student in the Centre for Hydrology, co-supervised by John Pomeroy and Howard Wheater.
Congratulations to Chris on this prestigious international award.

CH Prof Cherie Westbrook Heads Due South

CH Faculty Member Dr Cherie Westbrook is about to depart with a group of students on a research expedition to Tierra del Fuego, at the extreme southern tip of South America, to study the ecohydrological impacts of invasive beaver.
Departing on February 10, they will head to Ushuaia, the most southerly city in the world (intriguingly, it is at roughly the same latitude as Saskatoon – 45º South, instead of North).
The expedition will be documented at regular intervals through a blog at beaverlady.tumblr.com.

CH Research in Canadian Geographic – again!

The development of a device to use snow acoustics to measure snowpack physical properties by Centre for Hydrology student Nicholas Kinar was featured in the January edition of Canadian Geographic.
The System for Acoustic Sensing of Snow, SAS2, was developed by Nicholas to investigate how snowpack density, depth, wetness, temperature and structure affect sound waves and how sound waves can be used to measure these properties without disturbing the snowpack. It is uniquely capable of measuring a wide range of snow properties in both cold and melting snowpacks of varying depth and has been configured in stationary and portable versions.
Nicholas is completing his PhD in the Dept of Geography & Planning under the supervision of Dr John Pomeroy, and has won several national and international awards for his research.

CH / CRHO In The News

The Canadian Rockies Hydrological Observatory, which is being established in the Kananaskis and Upper Bow drainages by CH staff based at the Coldwater Laboratory, was the subject of a detailed article in the December 13th issue of Canmore’s Rocky Mountain Outlook.
The piece describes the purpose and aims of the project in improving river-flow predictions in the Prairies, through detailed observation of hydrometeorological conditions in the mountain headwaters of the South Saskatchewan River.
It also highlights the importance of major funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (40%), Province of Saskatchewan (40%) and U of S (20%) in covering the $835,000 cost.
The full article is available online from the RMO website.

Cold Matters – IP3 / WC2N Book Published

The IP3 and WC2N research networks are now ended, but Robert Sandford has written an engaging popular science book on the findings of the networks and related research, Cold Matters: the State and Fate of Canada’s Freshwater (publication details).
The book describes the research, researchers and results in these studies of cold regions hydrology, glaciology, meteorology and climatology in western and northern Canada.
CH Director Prof. John Pomeroy remarks “I was very impressed by how Bob related abstract scientific concepts (such as model parameterisation) into approachable descriptions that the non-scientist can enjoy. The book reviews the development of the models we use and why they were developed, the principles that govern hydrology and glaciology in Canada, the rapid changes to rivers, snow, glaciers and permafrost that have been observed and the implications of our results for the future of western and northern Canada. He encourages the reader to see the importance of research on these topics and their application in water management. The book is not only informative, but enjoyable to read and I highly recommend it not only to scientists in the field but a way to teach this information to non-physical science students and to inform the general public.”