NEWS

It is with great sadness that we report the recent death of John Rodda, longtime friend of IAHS and a key figure in its history. Our heartfelt condolences go out to his family, friends and colleagues.

John’s academic career was forged in his native Wales. Still in Wales in the 1960s, his studies of headwaters led to the establishment of the famous catchment research programme at Plynlimon. John went on in the 1960s and 1970s to develop the pit rain gauge, widely accepted as superior to the standard used in most countries. In 1985 he was instrumental in convening the first of a series of conferences on the hydrological applications of weather radar. He took the initiative to establish links between catchment research being undertaken in various European countries, which eventually developed into the worldwide UNESCO FRIEND programme.

From the 1960s to the1980s John worked in research and development at the Institute of Hydrology in Wallingford, UK, the Department of the Environment in London and the Water Data Unit in Reading; from 1988 to 1995 he was Director of the Hydrology and Water Resources Department at the WMO in Geneva.

Throughout his career John was committed to IAHS: he was Chair of its Precipitation Committee from 1967 to 1971, Editor of HSJ from 1971 to 1979, Secretary General from 1979 to 1987 and President from 1995 to 2001, past-President until 2003. It was in 1971 that he opened the IAHS Press offices in Wallingford, UK to produce both the Journal and the IAHS book series.

His achievements were recognised with the IAHS-UNESCO-WMO International Hydrology Prize in 2004.

To hear more about his extraordinary life and work, you can watch his interview with Keith Beven on the History of Hydrology series on YouTube.

We remember John Rodda as a visionary and a great man whose work will live on in the scientific community and beyond. He will be deeply missed.

Please be reminded that nominations the 2025 International Hydrology Prize, the Tison Award, and the Falkenmark Award close on 31 December 2024. We would like to take this opportunity to highlight that anyone can prepare a nomination and encourage any National Representative to submit it officially. It is not limited to the representative of the nominee’s country.

The International Hydrology Prize (Dooge Medal and Volker Medal)

This is awarded by IAHS, with UNESCO and WMO, to two people who have made an outstanding contribution to hydrological science. Two medals are awarded under the International Hydrology Prize: the Dooge Medal and the Volker Medal. Both medals are intended to distinguish outstanding achievements by hydrological scientists but with a different focus. The Dooge medal is aimed at fundamental contributions to the science of hydrology, whereas the Volker medal is aimed at outstanding applications of hydrological science for the benefit of society at large. 

The Tison and Falkenmark Awards

The Tison Award is granted for an outstanding paper published by IAHS in a period of two years prior to the deadline for nominations. The Falkenmark Award is for best PhD thesis from a nominee who grew up in and recently performed the PhD work in one or more financially disadvantaged countries. 

More Information

More detailed information on each prize, the nomination process, eligibility, specific considerations, past winners, etc. can be found here.

Closing Date

Nominations for all of the awards must be received by the Secretary General, Jean-Marie Kileshye Onema at [email protected], no later than 31 December 2024. 

Preparation for the XII^th IAHS Scientific Assembly, 5-10 October 2025 is continuing at full speed and abstract submission is now open. 

Early Career Travel Award - SYSTA 

SYSTA awards are available to eligible early career scientists who meet ALL of the SYSTA Award criteria. Applicants should email the completed application form and a copy of their published paper and Scientific Assembly abstract to IAHS Secretariat as early as possible. Before submitting their application form, applicants should read the “Guidance on completing the SYSTA application form” document. Applications and published paper must be in English. All eligible applications will be evaluated by the SYSTA committee after the deadline to decide on the awards. 

New program format for the IAHS Scientific Assembly

As mentioned in a previous enews, the IAHS Scientific Assembly will experiment with an innovative format:

1. The main innovation is that the Assembly will be held in plenary, without parallel sessions, thus increasing the interaction and audience size for all oral presentations.
2. The second innovation is that all participants will have an oral slot in the plenary. This choice will secure the visibility of early career scientists.
3. Since the innovative format would like to emphasize that hydrology is a unique discipline, the third main innovation is that there will not be a Call for Sessions. Instead there is an opportunity for pre-events.

Side events are also planned. Interested leaders of International Commissions, Working Groups and Committee Leaders should reach out to the IAHS Secretariat or Secretary General as soon as possible so that facilities can be provided and participants can arrange their stay accordingly. Side event details will be posted on the IAHS2025 website as soon as they’re confirmed, so stay tuned!

Join us in India next year for what promises to be an engaging and transformative event for the hydrological sciences! 

Welcome to the December edition of the HSJ Digest, our bi-monthly synopsis of the latest news from Hydrological Sciences Journal. As 2024 draws to a close, we celebrate six consecutive months of record numbers of accepted articles, boosted in no small part by our current Special Issues (detailed later in this edition). Find links to Issues 13 and 14 of HSJ, including four Open Access papers, the Editors’ choice of Featured Articles and a further article of particular topical interest. And in our regular profile of HSJ people, meet Dr Stacey Archfield, one of the journal’s five Co-editors.

We are delighted to welcome Professor Thom Bogaard as the new Chair of the IAHS HELPING Decade, starting January 2025.

Professor Bogaard is a distinguished hydrologist and geomorphologist based at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), where he contributes groundbreaking research in water sciences. He also serves as a visiting professor at Kasetsart University in Thailand, further enriching his global perspective on hydrological challenges.

As HELPING Chair, Thom will lead efforts to advance the goals of the HELPING Decade. His responsibilities will include:

• Promoting the HELPING Decade within the IAHS community and beyond.
• Coordinating Working Group activities through collaboration with Theme Leaders Justin Sheffield, Ana Mijic, and Adeyemi Olusola.
• Synthesizing and leading the publication of community papers, fostering impactful scientific contributions from the Decade.
• Reporting on the HELPING process to the IAHS Bureau at their meetings twice a year. 

The role of the HELPING Chair is a two-year term, and Thom is keen to engage with the IAHS community. He shares:

"I look forward to interacting and learning from you all."

Let’s extend a warm welcome to Thom as we embark on this next chapter of the HELPING Decade!

Preparation for the XIIth IAHS Scientific Assembly, 5-10 October 2025 is continuing at full speed. The Assembly will be jointly organized by the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, in coordination with the National Institute of Hydrology Roorkee, Irrigation Research Institute Roorkee and CBRI–Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) Roorkee, four leading institutions in the field of water resources in India.

The IAHS Scientific Assembly will experiment with an innovative format aiming to underline the importance of the discipline of Hydrology and to increase the visibility of the next generation of hydrologists.

The main innovation is that the Assembly will be held in plenary, without parallel sessions, thus increasing the interaction and audience size for all oral presentations. This choice is expected to produce more engaging presentations, to increase the visibility of the speakers and to increase the awareness that we are all part of the same discipline.

The second innovation is that all participants will have an oral slot in the plenary. This choice will secure the visibility of early career scientists. In order to guarantee an oral slot for all participants, two contributions will be available: oral contribution (15 minutes duration), and forum contribution (1 minute duration).

The forum contribution may be a plenary flash presentation, traditional poster or poster with video-interview. Authors that opt for the latter will be interviewed in front of their poster (3 minutes duration) and the video will be posted on the IAHS-YouTube channel.  

Since the innovative format would like to emphasize that hydrology is a unique discipline, the third main innovation is that there will not be a Call for Sessions. The scientific program of the IAHS Scientific Assembly will cover all the various scientific initiatives of IAHS:

-          Continental Erosion (ICCE)

-          Coupled Land-Atmospher Systems (ICCLAS)

-          Groundwater (ICGW)

-          Human-Water Feedbacks (ICHWF)

-          Remote Sensing (ICRS) 

-          Statistical Hydrology (ICSH)

-          Snow and Ice Hydrology (ICSIH) 

-          Surface Water (ICSW)

-          Tracers (ICT)

-          Water Quality (ICWQ)

-          Water Resource Systems (ICWRS) 

-          The Unsolved Problems in Hydrology – (23 sub-flags for selecting the specific question)

-          Measurements and Observations in the XXI century (MOXXI)

-          Citizen and Hydrology (CANDHY)

-          History of Hydrology

-          Global and local interactions (HELPING Theme 1)

-          Holistic solutions for water security (HELPING Theme 2)

-          Cross-Cutting Goals (HELPING Theme 3)

In addition to keynote speeches, technical presentations, and panel discussions, the conference includes field visits, workshops, and training programs.

Instead of parallel meetings, we will have pre-event meetings as side events. Therefore interested leaders of International Commissions, Working Groups and Committee Leaders should reach out to the IAHS Secretariat or Secretary General as soon as possible so that facilities can be provided and participants can arrange their stay accordingly. Side event details will be posted on the IAHS2025 website as soon as they’re confirmed, so stay tuned!

Abstract submission will open soon as well as travel grant opportunities.

Join us in India next year for what promises to be an engaging and transformative event for the hydrological sciences! 

The prestigious 2024 International Hydrology Prize medals were presented earlier this month at the IWRM/STAHY/EBHE joint meeting in Florianópolis, Brazil. We extend our congratulations to  Dooge medal recipient, Lena Merete Tallaksen (Norway)  and Volker medal recipient, Heidi Kreibich (Germany).

Lena Merete Tallaksen receiving the Dooge medal from Berit Arheimer (President IAHS) and Jean-Marie Kileshye Onema (Secretary General IAHS)

Heidi Kreibich receiving the Volker medal from Salvatore Grimaldi (President-Elect IAHS) and Jean-Marie Kileshye Onema (Secretary General IAHS)

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2025 International Hydrology Prize. 

This prize is awarded annually by IAHS, with UNESCO and WMO, to two people who have made an outstanding contribution to hydrological science. Two medals are awarded under the International Hydrology Prize: the Dooge Medal and the Volker Medal. Both medals are intended to distinguish outstanding achievements by hydrological scientists but with a different focus. The Dooge medal is aimed at fundamental contributions to the science of hydrology, whereas the Volker medal is aimed at outstanding applications of hydrological science for the benefit of society at large. More information, including the list of previous awards and the nomination process, is available here.

Nominations for the Prize should be forwarded to one of the National Representatives. Any such Representative can be approached, not only the ones representing your country. The list of representatives is found HERE. In addition, National Committees to the UNESCO-IHP or National Hydrological Advisors to the WMO can nominate. All nominations are forwarded to the Secretary General of IAHS for consideration by the Evaluation Committee. The Committee consists of the President and a Vice-President of IAHS and representatives of UNESCO and WMO

Nominations are also being accepted for IAHS Tison and Falkenmark Awards. The Tison award is granted for an outstanding paper published by IAHS in a period of two years prior to the deadline for nominations. More information, including the eligibility criteria and list of previous awards, is available here. The IAHS Falkenmark Award is for best PhD thesis from a nominee who grew up in and recently performed the PhD work in one or more financially disadvantaged countries. For more information see here.

Nominations for all of the awards should be received by the Secretary General, Jean-Marie Kileshye Onema at [email protected], no later than 31 December 2024.

Please be reminded to complete this registration form to secure your spot at this year's online HELPING conference, 26 November 2024 (13:00 - 16:00 CET). The final program is now available and addresses core elements of HELPING, individual Working Group activities and achievements, as well as parallel discussions on the next steps for each Theme. If you cannot access the Google Form, please contact [email protected] and assistance will be offered to you.  

Preparation for the XII^th IAHS Scientific Assembly, 5-10 October 2025 is at full speed. This event will be an experiment in community building by having all presentations in Plenum to encourage more joint scientific discussions within the hydrological society. We will allow more time for in-depth conceptual understanding as well as plenty of flash presentations of ongoing work and new results.

Suggest pre-events now!

Instead of parallel meetings, we open for pre-event meetings as side events. Therefore interested leaders of International Commissions, Working Groups and Committee Leaders should reach out to the IAHS Secretariat or Secretary General as soon as possible so that facilities can be provided and participants can arrange their stay accordingly. Side event details will be posted on the website as soon as they’re confirmed, so stay tuned!

Join us in India next year for what promises to be an engaging and transformative event for the hydrological sciences!