Sandford – Saskatchewan needs a water strategy

In his GIWS-sponsored presentation of October 7 2011, Northern Voices, Southern Choices: Water policy lessons for Saskatchewan drawn from leading Canadian and international examples, Bob Sandford, EPCOR Chair of the Canadian Partnership Initiative in support of the UN Water for Life Decade, made a strong case for the need for new thinking on water strategies for Saskatchewan. Major pressures are already being felt as a result of a combination of effects, including climate change, increased water use, and other environmental pressures, and these are likely only to intensify.
The StarPhoenix included a synopsis of the lecture on 8 October 2011, available here, and Bob was interviewed by CBC TV.

Lunchtime Seminar on IP3 Modelling – Friday 7 October

The Centre for Hydrology is pleased to present a hydrology seminar by Muluneh Mekonnen, IP3 Post-Doc, from 12:30 to 1:15pm on Friday 7 October 2011, in AGRI 1E69, entitled IP3’s combined top-down and bottom-up modelling approach using MESH and CRHM as complementary modelling platforms
The IP3 (Improving Processes and Parameterization for Prediction in Cold Regions Hydrology) network came to a successful end in September 2011, leaving a legacy of extensive cold regions processes, parameterization and prediction research work.
IP3’s strategic goal was to attain a more comprehensive physical description of cold regions processes and parameterizations, at regional and smaller scales, for improved prediction within hydrological and hydro-meteorological models such as the Cold Regions Hydrological Model (CRHM) and the Community Environmental Hydrology Land-Surface modelling system, known as MESH.
This seminar presents an application of the combined top-down and bottom-up hydrological modelling approach, using MESH and CRHM as complementary modelling platforms, for the South Saskatchewan River Basin (SSRB) and the Upper Assiniboine River Basin (UARB). In addition to cold regions processes, the SSRB and UARB are characterized by the prairie pothole topography that brings in the additional complexity of shrinking and expanding horizontal flow contributing areas.
The seminar will highlight two key points:
1) How to build a model with relatively minimal complexity whose prediction is commensurate with observations, and
2) How to use the Grouped Response Units approach for physically based parameter regionalization.
Feel free to bring your lunch!

Bob Sandford Lecture on Water Policy – GIWS, 7 Oct 2011

The Global Institute for Water Security is pleased to present a lecture by Bob Sandford, EPCOR Chair of the Canadian Partnership Initiative in support of the UN Water for Life Decade, on October 7, 2011.
The lecture, entitled Northern Voices, Southern Choices: Water policy lessons for Saskatchewan drawn from leading Canadian and international examples will begin at 1:45 pm in Room 144 Kirk Hall.
The presentation will be followed by a panel discussion featuring Howard Wheater (Global Institute for Water Security and SENS), Patricia Gober (Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy), and John Pomeroy (Centre for Hydrology and Department of Geography and Planning). More details here.

CH students’ Trans-Canada epic

Centre for Hydrology alumni Nathalie Brunet and Ross Phillips have been taking part in an epic 7000km trans-national adventure, taking them from Vancouver BC to Saint John NB.
Travelling since April, largely by canoe, sometimes by bike (with boats trailered), and even portaging through high mountains on snowshoes, they hope to arrive on the right-hand side of the country sometime over the next few weeks.
The trek was awarded a $25,000 Expedition of the Year grant from the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, and is also receving funding from the RBC Blue Water Project.
They are hoping to use the trip to raise awareness of the importance of Canada’s freshwater resources, and to draw attention to the work done by both the Canadian Heritage River System and the Nature Conservancy of Canada.
Details of the trip are updated regularly on the team’s blog / website: they were also interviewed in Ottawa by the CBC.

Nicholas Kinar wins AGU Horton Research Grant

Congratulations to Centre for Hydrology PhD student, Nicholas Kinar, who is one of two recipients of the American Geophysical Union Horton Research Grant in 2011.
There were 70 applicants for the grant, so it is a very prestigious award and will contribute to Nicholas’ research on acoustic imaging of snowpacks.
The AGU will recognize Nicholas at its Hydrology Section Luncheon at the AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco, California Dec 5-9 2011.
The full press release from the AGU is available here

IP3 Triple-Header Finale!

With funding for the IP3 network – which has been headquartered at CH – to end in September 2011, a series of workshops has been scheduled to share final results with the larger cold regions hydrology and water resources communities. These will focus on the advances made by the network in scientific understanding and modelling capability.
Program of Events:
Cold Regions Hydrological Model (CRHM) Training Course
Wednesday September 7th, 9am to 5pm
Advance registration required: participation limited to a maximum of 30 people.
MEC, Surface and Hydrology (MESH) / Canadian Land Surface Scheme (CLASS) Training Course
Thursday September 8th, 9am to 5pm
Advance registration required: participation limited to a maximum of 30 people.
IP3 Reception
Thursday September 8th, 5:30pm
Reception for IP3 Network participants, supporters, and course participants.
IP3 Final Results Workshop
Friday September 9th, 9am to 3pm
A final presentation of IP3 network scientific results, followed by a discussion on implications for the future development of public policy on water issues.
To register, or for more information, please contact Nadine at nadine.kapphahn@usask.ca, advising which workshop(s) you wish to attend.

IP3 and DRI in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix

The Saskatoon Star Phoenix included an editorial in its issue of 21st June 2011 discussing the need for increased funding of hydrological research, in order to improve methods for predicting and mitigating the effects of climate change, and included mention of the IP3 and DRI networks.
This topic has been brought into particular focus by this spring’s severe flooding throughout the Prairie Provinces.
The article is available from the Star Phoenix site, or in PDF form here.

CH’s Marmot Creek Research Basin in the news

The 10 June 2011 edition of Canmore’s Rocky Mountain Outlook newspaper included an overview of the extreme variability in snowpack and melt behaviour observed in Marmot Creek and other sites through the Alberta Rockies this spring: the article is available here.
The same edition also profiled the PUB2011-P3 workshop held in May (here).

Chris Marsh wins prize at CGU

Congratulations to CH MSc student Chris Marsh, who has been awarded the D.M.Gray Award for Best Student Paper in Hydrology at the Canadian Geophysical Union this year, for his paper and talk Implication of mountain shading and topographic scaling on energy for snowmelt.
There was a large number of applicants and the papers and presentations were very strong, so this is a particularly significant feedback to Chris. CH Director Prof John Pomeroy comments “I am sure that Don Gray would be very happy with this”.
The paper is available for download here.

Presentations by Prospective GIWS Faculty

Presentations by candidates for faculty posts in the Global Institute for Water Security have been scheduled as follows:
Candidates for Post in Hydro-ecological Assessment or Modelling
Candidate 1
8:30 a.m., 24 May 2011: Room 144, Kirk Hall
Candidate 2
1:00 p.m., 31 May 2011: Room 2E25, Agriculture Building
Candidates for Post in Hydrometeorology and Climate Science
Candidate 1
1:00 p.m., 24 May 2011: Room 2E17, Agriculture Building
Candidate 2
11:00 a.m., 26 May 2011: Room 2E17, Agriculture Building
Candidate 3
1:00 p.m., 30 May 2011: Room 2E25, Agriculture Building
Candidates for Post in Statistical Hydrology and Stochastic Processes
Candidate 1
8:30 a.m., 27 May 2011: Room 2E17, Agriculture Building
Candidate 2
1:00 p.m., 7 June 2011: Room 2C01, Engineering Building
Candidate 3
1:00 p.m., 8 June 2011: Room 2C01, Engineering Building
A Q&A session will follow each presentation.