IAHS News

2018 UN World Water Development Report, Nature-based Solutions for Water

The World Water Development Report was presented at the 8th World Water Forum, in Brasilia, Brazil on the 19th of March 2018. IAHS contributed to the report as an official partner of UN Water.


The WWDR2018, Nature-based solutions for water, demonstrates how nature-based solutions (NBS) offer a vital means of moving beyond business-as-usual to address many of the world’s water challenges while simultaneously delivering additional benefits vital to all aspects of sustainable development.

Currently, water management remains heavily dominated by traditional, human-built (i.e. ‘grey’) infrastructure and the enormous potential for NBS remains under-utilized. NBS include green infrastructure that can substitute, augment or work in parallel with grey infrastructure in a cost-effective manner. The goal is to find the most appropriate blend of green and grey investments to maximize benefits and system efficiency while minimizing costs and trade-offs.

NBS for water are central to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development because they also generate social, economic and environmental co-benefits, including human health and livelihoods, food and energy security, sustainable economic growth, decent jobs, ecosystem rehabilitation and maintenance, and biodiversity. Although NBS are not a panacea, they will play an essential role towards the circular economy and in building a more equitable future for all.

Working with nature improves the management of water resources, helps achieve water security for all, and supports the core aspects of sustainable development.

The full version of the report and presentation can be found at:
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/environment/water/wwap/wwdr/2018-nature-based-solutions/

IAHS Announce the winner of the 2018 Tison Award

The Secretary General of IAHS is pleased to announce that the jury of the IAHS Tison award for young hydrologists have identified the 2018 winning paper as:

Ryan T. Bailey & Saman Tavakoli Kivi (2017) Method for estimating available groundwater volume of small coral islands, Hydrological Sciences Journal, 62:14, 2381-2392, DOI: 10.1080/02626667.2017.1382703

This award is prestigious with a 1000 US$ prize and a 1 year subscription to HSJ sponsored by Taylor & Francis the publisher of Hydrological Sciences Journal.

Our congratulations go to both authors.

The award ceremony, together with the 2 medals of the IAHS-UNESCO-WMO International Hydrology Prize, will be held on 8 May during the WMO Global Conference "Prosperity through hydrological services", http://hydroconference.wmo.int/en/conf  at the WMO Headquarters, Geneva.
 

 
The paper is free to view on Taylor & Francis online - 10.1080/02626667.2017.1382703

The IAHS Tison Award, established in 1982, aims to promote excellence in research by young hydrologists. The Award is granted for an outstanding paper published by IAHS in a period of two years previous to the deadline for nominations. The description of the award is available at https://iahs.info/About-IAHS/Competition--Events/Tison-Award.do

Registration and abstract submission now open for ICCE symposium 2018

Dear colleagues,

Registration and abstract submission for the ICCE Symposium are now open.  Entitled "Climate Change Impacts on Sediment Dynamics: Measurement, Modelling and Management" the symposium will take place from 27 to 31 August 2018 in Moscow, Russia.

The symposium will focus on:
- Climate change and human impacts as a drivers of erosion, sediment dynamics, and river morphology transformation;
- The influence of climate change on water quality and drinking water treatment and supply;
- Erosion and sediment transport models and river basin management tools.

The ICCE Symposium will be accompanied by The Second International Young Scientists Forum on Soil and Water Conservation which will address mechanism/processes and modelling of soil degradation, innovation of technology of soil and water conservation, ecological restoration and regional sustainable development.

More information about registration and the submission of abstracts is available on the symposium website http://www.eng.geogr.msu.ru/IYFSWC/

Please, distribute this information to your colleagues and international partners. We are looking forward to meeting you in Moscow in August 2018.

With our best regards,

The Local Organizing Committee
Dr. Sergey Chalov, ICCE Vice-President
prof. Valentin Golosov, ICCE past President

2018 International Hydrology Prize medallists

IAHS are pleased to announce the recipients of the International Hydrology Prize (Dooge medal and Volker medal) for 2018.

The award ceremony will be held on May 8th 2018 at the Global conference 'Prosperity through hydrological services' organized by WMO in Geneva  http://hydroconference.wmo.int/en/conf

The 2018 recipients of the IAHS-UNESCO-WMO International Hydrology Prize are:

Dooge medal - Howard Wheater, at the University of Saskatchewan Canada

Volker medal - Andreas Schumann, at the Ruhr University in Bochum Germany

Nominations for the annual Prize are made by National Committees to IAHS, National Committees to the UNESCO-IHP or National Hydrological Advisors to the WMO, and forwarded to the Secretary General of IAHS for consideration by the Nomination Committee. The Committee consists of the President and a Vice-President of IAHS and representatives of UNESCO and WMO.

As of 2014, 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.

https://iahs.info/About-IAHS/Competition--Events/International-Hydrology-Prize.do  

Our warmest congratulations go to both recipients.

Remote Sensing and Hydrology Symposium abstract submission extended to 7 March

Dear colleagues,

On behalf of the IAHS-International Commission of Remote Sensing, we announce that abstract submission for the Remote Sensing and Hydrology Symposium has been extended to 7 March 2018. The University of Córdoba hosts this edition, devoted to “Earth Observation for Integrated Water and Basin Management: New possibilities and challenges for adaptation to a changing environment”, from 8-10 May 2018 in Córdoba, Spain.

During the conference, we will discuss the state-of-the-art on this topic and current and future needs from remote sensing to provide hydrologists and other related branches of science with data and tools for research on the water cycle components, hydrological modelling, water resource management, and integrated river basin management, among others.

We encourage the international community to participate in this event and contribute to its results and success; young researchers are especially encouraged to join the discussion. All accepted abstracts will be electronically edited by Copernicus; an extended version of a limited number of works will be solicited to the authors upon acceptance of abstracts to be published in a special issue of PIAHS, the proceedings journal of IAHS. Moreover, selected works from the presentations in the conference will be invited to submit a full paper to a special issue of Hydrological Sciences Journal, the official journal of IAHS, indexed in the JCR.

Please, visit our website for further details about registration and submission of abstracts http://rshssymposiumcordoba2018.com  

Different options for accommodation with special fares for the conference attendees are available; we kindly advise to book in advance from our website and technical office to avoid higher prices due to the tourist season in Córdoba.

Please, distribute this information to your colleagues and international partners. We apologize for potential cross-posting. We are looking forward to welcoming you in Córdoba in May 2018.

With our best regards,

The Organizing Committee
Prof. Dr. María J. Polo, University of Córdoba
Dr. María Pat. González-Dugo, IFAPA
Prof. Christopher Neale, University of Nebraska

23 Unsolved Problems in Hydrology - Symposium announcement

Dear All

As you may be aware there is currently a discussion going on with the aim of identifying unsolved scientific problems in hydrology (UPH).

To make tangible progress, the UPH should:

(1) ideally relate to observed phenomena and why they happen;
(2) they should be universal (i.e. not only apply to one catchment or region); and
(3) they should be specific (so there is hope they can be solved).

One example of an UPH is: "Why is root zone storage related to dry spell duration?"

For details see the IAHS YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyObwmNr7Ko&feature=youtu.be

We welcome any ideas and invite you to contribute to the discussion on the UPH LinkedIn group:  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13552921

Alternatively, if you prefer not to join LinkedIn, please email one UPH to Günter Blöschl with a brief justification. The UPH will then be included in the compilation to be discussed on 13 and 14 April in Vienna (Meeting Schedule).
 
Below the list of UPH that have been discussed so far on the group.

Best wishes and looking forward to receiving your UPH.

Günter Blöschl
IAHS President

FLOODS AND DROUGHTS

Do we understand scour and erosion processes occurring during extreme floods?
Can we improve the estimation of extreme flood peak discharges?
How can we evaluate the performance of Flood Early Warning Systems, in terms of losses avoided as a result of a warning?
How do we improve drought (or flood) risk assessments?
How to use nature-based solutions to reduce flood risk and drought risks and increase the resilience of water resources?
How do droughts and floods shape hydrological risk awareness?
How are changes in vulnerability influencing trends in flood risk?
How to assess water scarcity by considering both water quantity and quality Do flood rich-poor periods exist? If so why?
Where and when do flood wave superpositions occur and what are the atmospheric, catchment and river network controls on this process?
Water scarcity assessment

SNOW AND ICE

How can we ensure that improved snowmelt models translate into improved capabilities to simulate streamflow from snowy watersheds?
How can small-scale variability of snow distribution be better represented in larger scale models, and what level of detail is needed for snowmelt runoffmodelling?
Under what conditions is snow melt a more efficient generator of streamflow and groundwater recharge than rainfall?
What is the effect of preferential deposition and lateral redistribution of snow on runoff generation in alpineheadwatersheds?
How to determine the snow water equivalent in mountain regions?

WATER QUALITY

Can we devise a combined eco-hydrology index of river health to balance human and ecological needs?
What is the role of water quality in the water-energy-food nexus?
How to describe human-water interactions in water quality models?
How do we identify the dominant process controlling water quality over different spatial scales?
What controls long-term spatio-temporal evolution of catchment water quality?

EVAPORATION AND PRECIPITATION

Soil evaporation and soil evaporation/transpiration partition How plants and grass works and interact with soil and atmosphere to produce evaporation?

SCALE AND SCALING

Will we ever find the best approach to extrapolate point scale data to the catchment scale?
Combining understanding gained at different spatial scales, e.g. generalizing lessons learned from case studies to larger scales.
How dominant hydrological processes emerge and disappear across the scales.
Can we trade space for time in hydrology?

MODELLING (GENERAL)

Can hydrological processes of highly urbanized watershed be realistically simulated/predicted?
What future for process based modelling beyond persistent dilettantism ?
How to solve the energy budget, the carbon budget and the sediment budget together to constrain hydrologic models results?
Which new mathematics to choose for the hydrology of this century?
Does machine learning have a real role in hydrological modelling
How can we really cope hydrological modeling with remote sensing measures ?
When will hydrological models (HMs) be robust enough to anticipate accurately future water conditions?
Is it possible to remove the independence condition in the multivariate frequency analysis (e.g., when using Copulas)?
What is the value of soil moisture observations for hydrologic predictions?
How can we identify the independent factors determining a nonlinearly evolving hydrologic response?
How can one identify the optimal sample dimension to use in multivariate analysis with copula functions?
Assessing the impact of non-stationary (epistemic) precipitation errors on hydrological model predictions

LANDSCAPE PROCESSES AND STREAMFLOW

Why we can not predict river runoff?
Why are the distribution of distances from a point in the catchment to the nearest river reach exponentially distributed?
Why / How does hydro-geomorphology follow thermodynamic laws - Coevolution, structure-function, emergence, anisotropy, scaling...
How can we explain the ubiquitous existence of patterns in hydrology providing constraints on heterogeneity and preferential flow of water through media Natural heterogeneity, thermodynamics and (yet again) closing the waterbalance
What controls the long term water balance, apart from aridity?

MEASUREMENTS AND DATA

Is it possible to accurately measure flow discharge using gauge-cams (or UAV-mounted cameras)?
A large number of inaccurate observations vs a few accurate measurements: what is our best choice?
Working with different data sources (and there varying spatial and temporal resolution), for example impact & vulnerability information, citizen science data, satellite data.
How can we accurately measure water fluxes in the subsurface (soil and groundwater) at a range of scales?
How can we detect and measure spatial hydrological patterns?
How to cost- efficiently observe multiple tracers at a high temporal frequency at various locations?

GROUNDWATER AND SOILS

Can we better account for the complex water flow dynamics in the vadosezone?
What controls the distribution and depth of actively circulating water in the subsurface?
It is time to change our mind to augmenting groundwater recharge by focus on water-bearing formation in uplands watershed not just in flood plains or alluvial fans!
What controls the source of water to wells?
Where and why is the largest global store of freshwater (groundwater) connected to other parts of the hydrologic cycle?
Why transport modeling in the subsurface is often inaccurate and fraught of uncertainty?
What are the main processes controlling transport and transformation of contaminants across scales?
Why assessing groundwater resources and their variation is space and time is a daunting, though dramatically needed, endeavour?
Why removal of contaminant from groundwater by pump-and-treat does not work?
Closing the mass-age balance by measurement

HYDROLOGICAL CHANGE

Why are some catchments more sensitive to land-use/cover change than others?
Is the hydrological cycle regionally accelerating under global warming?
Influence of climate variability on large rivers runoff
Dealing with non-stationarities, e.g differences in timescales between analysis tools & methods, modeling of non-stationary processes
Quantifying the human influence on hydrology and hydrological extremes at the catchment scale What is the real impact of man on the water volumes transferred to the sea by rivers?
Why are springs in mountains drying up?
How can we detect and attribute change in flood characteristics?
Sudden and abrupt changes of water management conditions?
Why do we see long term cycles in temperature, rainfall and river flows?

ASSORTED

Elementary physics of hydrological cycle.
Impact of solar activity on hydrological cycle of the Himalayan and Indian Peninsula Rivers.
Does hydrology needs non-equilibrium thermodynamics or even a new type of thermodynamics ?
How we can do hydrology science more open and replicable?
How can we link our hydrological science with stakeholders?

WMO Global Conference for Prosperity through Hydrological Services

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is hosting the Global Conference on "Prosperity through hydrological services" in Geneva, Switzerland, from 7 to 9 May 2018. This conference is organized within the UN decade "Water for Sustainable Development" with IAHS as a partner.

The HydroConference aims to foster collaboration on improving the availability and use of hydrological services worldwide by:

  • Promoting collaboration for new and ongoing initiatives, including the establishment of data exchange;
  • Leveraging the knowledge and expertise of the full range of water stakeholders to coordinate efforts towards greater impact; and 
  • Mobilizing public and private sector leaders to leverage support for key initiatives.

More information about the conference, including the programme, registration and logistical details is available at the conference website: hydroconference.wmo.int

      

Second Reminder - Abstract submission for Remote Sensing and Hydrology Symposium is now open

Dear colleagues,

On behalf of the IAHS-International Commission of Remote Sensing, we announce that abstract submission for the Remote Sensing and Hydrology Symposium is now open until the end of February. The University of Córdoba hosts this edition, devoted to “Earth Observation for Integrated Water and Basin Management: New possibilities and challenges for adaptation to a changing environment”, from 8-10 May 2018 in Córdoba, Spain.

During the conference, we will discuss the state-of-the-art on this topic and current and future needs from remote sensing to provide hydrologists and other related branches of science with data and tools for research on the water cycle components, hydrological modelling, water resource management, and integrated river basin management, among others.

We encourage the international community to participate in this event and contribute to its results and success; young researchers are especially encouraged to join the discussion. All accepted abstracts will be electronically edited by Copernicus; an extended version of a limited number of works will be solicited to the authors upon acceptance of abstracts to be published in a special issue of PIAHS, the proceedings journal of IAHS. Moreover, selected works from the presentations in the conference will be invited to submit a full paper to a special issue of Hydrological Sciences Journal, the official journal of IAHS, indexed in the JCR.

Please, visit our website for further details about registration and submission of abstracts http://rshssymposiumcordoba2018.com 

Different options for accommodation with special fares for the conference attendees are available; we kindly advise to book in advance from our website and technical office to avoid higher prices due to the tourist season in Córdoba.

Please, distribute this information to your colleagues and international partners. We apologize for potential cross-posting. We are looking forward to welcoming you in Córdoba in May 2018.

With our best regards,

The Organizing Committee
Prof. Dr. María J. Polo, University of Córdoba
Dr. María Pat. González-Dugo, IFAPA
Prof. Christopher Neale, University of Nebraska

MOXXI update

In 2013, the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) established the Measurements and Observations in the XXI Century (MOXXI) working group with the specific aim to promote the advancement of novel observational techniques toward an improved comprehension of the hydrological cycle. Since then, MOXXI has attracted a vibrant multidisciplinary and international community and has organized special sessions at international conferences (EGU, AGU, and IAHS General Assembly) and focal workshops. A recent currently free-to-view community paper in the Hydrological Sciences Journal (http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02626667.2017.1420191 ) offers a synthesis of MOXXI objectives: a proactive behavior toward observations, multidisciplinarity and contamination from other fields of science, and the use of affordable and opportunistic technologies to enrich our understanding of hydrological processes.

In December 2017, the joint MOXXI – World Meteorological Organization (WMO) HydroHub “Innovation in Hydrometry - From ideas to operation” meeting was held in Geneva at the WMO headquarters. This two-half day workshop brought together members of the science and operations communities to learn about innovative observational methodologies and to foster the uptake of such novel solutions in operational environments. On the first day, around 70 participants from all over the globe attended 28 short presentations followed by Q&A on a variety of topics, including flood gauging, monitoring networks, citizen science, and drone initiatives in hydrology. On the second day, keynote talks, expert interviews, and breakout group discussions motivated the participants to identify key challenges and needs for the uptake of new technologies into hydrological practice. According to a questionnaire administered by WMO after the event, 94% of the surveyed participants deemed both days either good or excellent. We hope that similar events will help open channels of communication and cooperation between the academia and national services for the development of adequate standards and quality management practices. More information on the meeting, including the workshop report and speakers’ presentations, can be found at https://iahs.info/Commissions--W-Groups/Working-Groups/MOXXI/Information/MOXXI-2017.do

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