By Anne-Marie Hickey, The StarPhoenix, Saskatoon, SK
November 9, 2009
Short Course: “The Physical Principles of Hydrology”
The Canadian Society for Hydrological Sciences, in partnership with the University of Saskatchewan, is offering a short course entitled “The Physical Principles of Hydrology” to be held at the University of Calgary’s Biogeoscience Institute’s Barrier Lake Station in the Kananaskis Valley from March 2 – 11, 2010.
This course is directed to graduate students and early to mid-level career water resource engineers, hydrologists, aquatic ecologists and technologists from Canada who are either working directly in the disciplines presented or are looking to broaden their understanding of hydrological systems and processes. Details and registration are now available at http://www.cwra.org/branches/cshs/Principles_of_Hydrology_Workshop.aspx. There is room for 40 students. For further information, please contact Dr. Christopher Spence at chris.spence@ec.gc.ca or Dr. John Pomeroy at john.pomeroy@usask.ca.
Going North to Help Gauge Global Water Supply
By Lisa Johnson, For The StarPhoenix, Saskatoon, SK
In the Sheep Creek Basin in Ivvavik National Park, in Canada’s far northwest corner, Stacey Dumanski took full advantage of the amazing 24-hour sunlight this summer to do fieldwork that could help improve global water prediction.
“We are entering a global water crisis, and given rapid climate change and resource development in the North, this work is urgent,” says the fourth-year University of Saskatchewan student.
Water shortages due to climate change could seriously affect Canadians and people all over the world. Dumanski’s research in the remote creek basin will help policy makers better understand water resources in cold regions and predict the global water supply.
Recent Awards at Centre for Hydrology
Best Presentation Award: The Western Snow Conference Best Paper Award was given to John Pomeroy, Matt MacDonald, Chris DeBeer and Tom Brown for their paper “Alpine Snow Hydrology in the Canadian Rocky Mountains” at the 77th Annual WSC in Canmore, Alberta 23 April 2009.
CGU Best Student Paper: The Canadian Geophysical Union Best Student Paper Award was given to Nicholas Kinar for the paper “Acoustic Observation of Snowpack Physical Properties” at the CGU-AGU Meeting in Toronto, Ontario, 27 May 2009
CAG Award: The Canadian Association of Geographers gave the CAG Award for the most outstanding students graduating in Geography honours/majors programmes at universities or colleges across Canada to Chris Marsh who graduated this spring and will be continuing as a MSc student in the Centre for Hydrology.
Congratulations to all of you on a job well done!
Province Awards $1.1 M for U of S Healthy River Ecosystem Research
A University of Saskatchewan project led by Canada Research Chair Monique Dubé will receive $1.142 million from the Saskatchewan government’s Go Green Fund. The project known as THREATS (The Healthy River Ecosystem Assessment Tool System) will create a database of information to track changes in and help manage Canadian watersheds, including those in Saskatchewan. Dr. Westbrook from Centre for Hydrology is part of this project.
View the complete release here. Additional information on the THREATS research group is available at: http://threats.usask.ca
Province Awards $1.1 M for U of S Healthy River Ecosystem Research
A University of Saskatchewan project led by Canada Research Chair Monique Dubé will receive $1.142 million from the Saskatchewan government’s Go Green Fund. The project known as THREATS (The Healthy River Ecosystem Assessment Tool System) will create a database of information to track changes in and help manage Canadian watersheds, including those in Saskatchewan.
Dr. Westbrook from Centre for Hydrology is part of this project.
View the complete release here. Additional information on the THREATS research group is available at: http://threats.usask.ca
U of S Student wins AGU Award
Congratulations to May Guan, MSc student in the Centre for Hydrology, for winning an Outsanding Student Paper Award for her presentation “Influence of Frozen Ground on Spatial Soil Moisture Patterns in a Subarctic Canadian Shield Landscape” at the 2008 Fall Meeting of the AGU (American Geophysical Union) in San Francisco this past December.
Congratulations May on a job well done!
In the News: Water Monitoring Network Flows
By Mari-Louise Rowley – Rocky Mountain Outlook
Plans for an integrated hydrometeorological observation and prediction network focused on western Canada’s watersheds moved closer to reality as more than 80 delegates attended an international conference at the Radisson Hotel and Conference Centre in Canmore earlier this week.
Running Dec. 8-10, the Improving Water Security Through Integrated Observation and Prediction Networks conference drew top glaciologists, hydrologists and utility and government representatives from the U.S., France and across Canada.
“We’re all drinking from the same tap – the tap being the Canadian Rockies,” said John Pomeroy, University of Saskatchewan-based Canadian research chair in water resources and climate change. “Our water doesn’t stop in western Canada.”
Water that originates in the Rockies, from North America’s hydrological apex at Mount Snow Dome on the Columbia Icefields, eventually flows to three oceans, the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Arctic, while water from Bow Lake, the headwaters of the Bow River, flows through Calgary and southern Alberta to eventually feed the South Saskatchewan River.
And the issues that are affecting the flows of fresh water all over the world – pollution threats from industry, overuse due to population growth and decreased flows due to the impacts of climate change – are equally pressing in western Canada, Pomeroy said. As such, establishing a network dedicated to collecting data, conducting research, and predicting future flows is an important undertaking, but a restricted one given the work currently underway.
Read the full article here.