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.

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.

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

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.

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).

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.