Is the Caspian Sea the next Aral lake?

A streams of thoughts contribution by Hayat Nasirova

The Caspian Sea (CS) is the largest lake on Earth. It is located at the intersection of Europe and Asia. It is called “sea” because it has an ocean-type earth layer at the bottom as being a remnant of the Tethys Ocean and has the dimensions of a sea. The water level is variable, currently it is approximately -28 meters below the ocean level.

The current worry of some hydrologists is whether the CS will follow the same fate as the  Aral lake. NASA’s Global Water Monitor, which uses radar altimetry data collected by multiple satellites, shows changes in water levels in the CS since the mid-1990s (Figure 1).

Figure 1: a) Regions affected by severe drying as projected for 2080–2099 with major lakes located in the region indicated in bright red. Many of these lakes are already experiencing drying. Map data: Google Earth, Landsat/Copernicus (data from SIO/NOAA, U.S. Navy, NGA, GEBCO, IBCAO, USGS). b) Impact of Caspian Sea Level(CSL) projections of −9 m and −18 m at the end of the twenty-first century. Red regions fall dry.
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“Gotta catch’em all” talk – Fourth talk

Join us for the fourth episode of the “Gotta catch’em all” series to hear about precipitation downscaling and climate-soil-vegetation interactions.

Get your free place at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bhs-yhs-gotta-catchem-all-may-2023-episode-3-tickets-619587231087

See you there!

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Bridging the gap between research and the public: the role of citizen scientists

A Streams of Thought contribution by Paola Mazzoglio and Miriam Bertola.

The potential of  citizen science in hydrology

Citizen scientists (i.e., volunteers who help conducting tasks in scientific research) have the potential to play an important role in hydrology. The main advantage of Citizen science initiatives is that they engage a broad range of individuals since no previous knowledge of the research topic is needed, including ordinary people, students, and educators, and both sides benefit from this collaboration. On the one hand, these initiatives are opportunities to disseminate scientific knowledge and awareness to the public about water-related challenges. On the other hand, citizens contribute to collective tasks that speed up scientific research.

The role of citizen scientists is generally the collection and the analysis of data on water resources or on some component of the water cycle, mainly in terms of quantity and quality. This includes taking measurements of streamflow, rainfall, water temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, and other parameters using simple, low-cost tools such as meters, test kits, computers and smartphones. Citizen scientists can, for example, collect water samples for laboratory analysis, which provide information on nutrient levels, sediment loads, and the presence of contaminants. In addition to collecting data, citizen scientists can assist in analyzing and interpreting it.

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EGU23 Short Course – Meet the editors (1): how to write and revise your manuscript

Preparing a manuscript for submission to a scientific journal may be hard work for many scientists. Still, scientific writing is an essential step of the research process, because the form used to present the results is often as important as the results themselves. Writing a scientific paper is a skill that can be acquired with time, while becoming easier with practice.

During the conference EGU23 held in Vienna, the Short Course “Meet the editors (1): how to write and revise your manuscript” was delivered. This short course gave early career scientists simple guidelines on writing about their work and increase the chance of publishing it.

Nadav Peleg, assistant professor at the University of Lausanne, was lecturer of this course. Dr. Peleg is an editor in the Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (HESS) journal and Journal of Hydrology.

Dr. Nadav Peleg
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EGU23 Short Course – DataViz: Visualise your data effectively and avoid common pitfalls

Visualisation of scientific data is an integral part of scientific understanding and communication. Scientists have to make decisions about the most effective way to communicate their results everyday. How do we best visualise the data to understand it ourselves? How do we best visualise our results to communicate with others? Common pitfalls can be overcrowding, overcomplicated plot types or inaccessible color schemes. Scientists may also get overwhelmed by the graphics requirements of different publishers, for presentations, posters etc.

During the conference EGU23 held in Vienna, the Short Course “DataViz: Visualise your data effectively and avoid common pitfalls” was delivered. This course was co-organized by the Young Hydrologic Society (YHS) and was designed to help scientists improve their data visualization skills in a way that the research outputs would be more accessible within their own scientific community and reach a wider audience.

Picture taken during the EGU23 short course.
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EGU23 Short Course – Hydroinformatics for hydrology: Introduction to large-scale hydrological modelling

One of the major challenges in water resources management today and in the coming future is reducing the risk related to extreme events, i.e. floods and droughts, mainly through a reliable flow prediction. Large-scale hydrological models have been widely proposed to gain insights into dominant water processes, quantify the role of human-water interactions, and identify emergent global patterns in a changing world.

During the conference EGU23 held in Vienna, the Short Course “Hydroinformatics for hydrology: Introduction to large-scale hydrological modelling” was delivered. This course was co-organized by the Young Hydrologic Society (YHS). Dr. Niko Wanders from Utrecht University was the lecturer of this course.

Dr. Niko Wanders from Utrecht University.
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Pre-EGU Online Networking Event

Are you attending the EGU-GA for the first time? Or have you already been in Vienna and wanna share some tips with your colleagues?

Join our Pre-EGU Online Networking Event! Come for the annual Early Career Hydrology Meet and Greet between hydrologists from institutions around the world. Bring your drink of choice and get to know some of your colleagues before the upcoming EGU conference!

When: 19 April, 2023, 4-5pm CET

Registration: https://forms.gle/6NgjWgPBbiyoS2aeA

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“Gotta catch’em all” talk – Third talk

Join us for the third episode of the “Gotta catch’em all” hydrology online series to hear about precipitation extremes and radiometers!

Get your free place at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bhs-and-yhs-ec-talks-march-episode-tickets-592374547217?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=escb

See you there!

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Profile Series: Athanasios Serafeim

Contribution by Ritesh Patro.

Let’s get the basics. Name, where you are from, and your current affiliation and advisor?

My name is Athanasios V. Serafeim, and I originate from a small city in Northern Greece named Edessa. I recently received my Ph.D. from the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Patras, under the supervision of Prof. Andreas Langousis. Currently, I serve as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Patras focusing on the design, monitoring and management of urban water networks, while working also as a consultant of TECHNOR Engineering LTD (https://technor.gr/en/).

What is the research you are currently working on?

My main research focuses on the development of an integrated, theoretically founded, and practically applicable methodological framework for resilient reduction of leakages in water distribution networks (WDNs), which combines: a) a set of probabilistic approaches for minimum night flow (MNF) estimation and parametric modeling of water losses in WDNs, and b) a combination of statistical clustering and hydraulic modeling techniques for WDN partitioning into pressure management areas (PMAs; or districted metered areas, DMAs). A side project I am currently working on investigates the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on domestic water consumption patterns.

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Hallway Conversations – Alberto Viglione (February 2023)

Contribution by Paola Mazzoglio (PM)

Alberto graduated in Environmental Engineering at the Politecnico di Torino (Italy) with a thesis on “Turbulence structures in the canopy layer”. He carried out his Ph.D. on the theme “Non-supervised statistical methods for the prediction of hydrological variables in ungauged sites” at the Hydraulic Department of Politecnico di Torino (2004-2007). He worked as a Research Fellow at TU Wien (Austria) in the field of “Flood Hydrology” from 2007 until 2018. Since 2019 he is an Associate Professor at the Politecnico di Torino. He is currently EGU HS Division Deputy President and, in April, he will become EGU HS President for the years 2023–2025.

PM. Was becoming a scientist your career plan when you were a student? Did you envision yourself as a professor at any point? If not, which events led to where you are now?

AV. I can say I have been fascinated by science since I was a kid. “Il mondo di Quark”, a popular Italian science television show, was always in my allowed daily ration of TV (I had to sacrifice a cartoon for it, but it was worth it). And I liked scientists in comics, books, and movies. For sure I didn’t imagine I would have ended up being a scientist, though. Well, I don’t consider myself a scientist anyway… but I couldn’t imagine I would have become a professor at the university, and that has happened!

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A summer camp for scientists

Contribution by Lina Stein

If you work in research, sooner or later you will be asked to attend a scientific conference. In Hydrology, there is a whole host of conferences to choose from. The usual suspects would be the big ones: AGU, EGU, IAHS… but what about the small ones? Here, I want to talk about a small conference that I went to a few years ago (in 2019 to be exact), the Gordon Research Conference. I liked it so much that I directly volunteered to be the early career chair for the next one. Well, with Covid that chair position took a bit longer that usual, but this year, finally, the next Gordon Research Conference (or GRC for short) in Catchment Science will take place.

The Gordon Research Conference in Catchment Science: Interactions of Hydrology, Biology and Geochemistry is a five-day conference in New Hampshire, USA, every two years. In the two days before the GRC the Gordon Research Seminar (GRS), the early career conference takes place.

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“Gotta catch’em all” talk – Second talk

Join us for the second episode of “Gotta catch’em all” talk organized by the British Hydrological Society and the Young Hydrologic Society to hear about Indiana Jones-like hydrology discoveries and the first-ever type of network.

Get your free place at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bhs-yhs-gotta-catchem-all-second-episode-tickets-526614055817

See you there!

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EGU Early Career Scientist Rep for Hydrological Sciences (2023-2025): applications open

The application for the role of Early Career Scientist Representative (ECS Rep) for the EGU Division on Hydrological Sciences (2023-2025) is open!

More details can be found in the official statement.

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Hallway Conversations – Luca Brocca (January 2023)

Contribution by Paola Mazzoglio (PM)

Luca Brocca received the M.Sc. degree in Environmental Engineering and the Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering, both with excellence, from the University of Perugia, Italy, in 2003 and 2008, respectively. Since 2009 he is a Researcher at the National Research Council (CNR), Research Institute for Geo-Hydrological Protection (IRPI) of Perugia (Italy). Since 2019 he is the Director of Research at the same institute. The main research interest of Luca Brocca lies in the development of innovative methods for exploiting satellite observations for hydrological applications (webpage).

PM. Can you tell us a little bit about your background and education? Was becoming a scientist your career plan when you were a student?

LB. I always enjoyed mathematics and environmental science, that’s why I have selected environmental engineering in my city, Perugia. I started studying hydrology because I did my master thesis in this field, then as soon as I got my degree I was selected at CNR-IRPI for a scholarship in Hydrology, and here I am. I did my PhD for studying soil moisture spatial-temporal variability and its use for hydrological modeling, all my career so far has been around the soil moisture topic. The long-term satellite soil moisture product (ESA CCI soil moisture) started in November 1978, the month I was born; I don’t think this is by chance! By the way, I am not a typical researcher as I did my studies and I always worked in my city (with just a very short period abroad)!

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New YHS President: Faranak Tootoonchi

Faranak (FT) is the incoming President for the Young Hydrologic Society. Here the outgoing President Lina (LS) interviews her about what it is like finishing the PhD, why she would recommend people to join YHS, and what she plans for the future.

LS:  You just finished your PhD. Congratulations! How does it feel?

FT: It feels great but a bit sad as well. It feels good, because I actually wrapped up this chapter. At the same time, it is sad not to be a student anymore. I feel a bit nostalgic because I really had good time as a PhD student in Uppsala university.

Picture taken the night before the day of Faranak’s defense.
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“Gotta catch’em all” talk

The British Hydrological Society and Young Hydrologic Society would invite you to join the first “Gotta catch’em all” talk on 17th January 2023, 14:30-15:30 CEST. The speakers will talk about hydrology tips and rainfall data decimation.

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Hallway Conversations – Heidi Kreibich (November 2022)

Contribution by Paola Mazzoglio (PM)

Heidi Kreibich is head of the working group “Flood risk and climate adaptation” at the Section Hydrology, German Research Centre for Geosciences GFZ. Heidi’s research is focused on flood risk assessment and mitigation with a background in Environmental engineering, Hydrology and Geography. Heidi is particularly interested in understanding and modelling flood damage processes and in human-flood interaction. She coordinates the IAHS Panta Rhei Working group “Changes in flood risk”.

PM. Can you tell us a little bit about your background and education? Was becoming a scientist your career plan when you were a student?

I studied environmental engineering at the Technical University of Berlin. Coming from a village in Bavaria, studying in the highly dynamic city of Berlin right after reunification opened up a new world for me. I had a wide range of interests, participated in independent student projects such as self-organised seminars on feminist environmental research and also completed internships in consulting companies, administration and research institutions. Above all, my study project during an Erasmus semester at Lancaster University, UK with Prof. Kevin Jones and my diploma thesis at CSIRO in Melbourne, Australia under the supervision of Dr. Rob Gillett awakened my passion for science and I decided to do a PhD and go into research.

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Profile Series: Sarpong Hammond Antwi

Let’s get the basics. Name, where you are from, and your current affiliation and advisor?

Hi, my name is Sarpong Hammond Antwi. I am originally from Ashanti Region, Ghana. I received an MSc in Energy Policy from the Pan African University (Institute of Water and Energy Sciences), in Tlemcen, Algeria, in 2019 and currently I am a PhD candidate at Dundalk Institute of Technology, Ireland. I am advised by Dr Suzanne Linnane, Dr David Getty and Dr Alec Rolston.

 What is the research you are currently working on?

My PhD research focuses on water governance and management in the Republic of Ireland. I use a mixed method approach under a theory of change influence to assess the changes in policies and management practices and how this impacts water availability amidst climatic changes, demographic and economic growth, agricultural and land use changes. 

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New YHS-NL Activity: Excursion to the Hedwigepolder

In the final week of September, there will be a summer school near the Hedwigepolder. We have arranged that we can visit on the final day (Friday 30. September). We will receive a tour (starting at 13.00h) and afterwards there will be a BBQ! For the latter we need to know how many of you would like to join, so please fill in this form. The deadline is this Friday, 9. September, at 16.00h, because we need to let the organisers know by Friday afternoon. The transportation costs from the location we meet and the BBQ are free of charge. You only have to get to our meeting spot. More information will follow after you’ve signed up.

 We hope to see many of you there!!

 Cheers,
 The Young Hydrologic Society Netherlands
Fransje van Oorschot, Jerom Aerts, Melanie Martyn Rosco, Qianqian Han, Janneke Remmers, Linda Bogerd & Ruben Imhoff

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Dashli volcanic eruption: Do mud volcanoes affect hydrological processes?

A streams of thoughts contribution by Hayat Nasirova; co-edited by Paola Mazzoglio, Ritesh Patro and Swamini Khurana

“Mud volcano” is a generic term commonly used to describe any structure that emits water, mud, or hydrocarbons. Although mud volcanoes occur most commonly offshore, onshore mud volcanoes also exist in selected localities, generally in compressional tectonic settings (Milkov, 2000; Kopf, 2002). The petroleum bearing Caspian basin (CB) is located within the Alpine-Himalayan mobile tectonic belt, where earthquakes and intense modern earth crust movements have been observed. CB is a relic of the Tethys Ocean originating in the post-orogenic stage of regional development. It is an intermountain basin surrounded by mountain systems: Great and Lesser Caucasus, Talysh, Elburs, Kopetdag and Balkhan (Feyzullayev, 2012).

Dashli Island is one such island formed by a mud volcano. It was discovered in the 18th century by Russian sailors under Peter the Great who named it “St. Ignatius Stone”, after Ignatius of Antioch. The Dashli mud volcano emits hotbeds of polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with continuous methane discharge as well (Remizovschi and Carpa, 2021).

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How to write a review article in Hydrology – EGU 22 Short course

One of the fundamental drivers of scientific progress is research integration and synthesis, which is essentially beneficial for developing a research vision. Hence, literature reviews prove to be highly useful to many researchers at all academic stages. Analysing the literature and writing reviews for a thesis, article or project proposal can sometimes be challenging to fresh early-career scientists. For a review paper, even greater attention must be given to the methodological approach to conduct a reproducible and thorough review of the existing scientific literature.

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EGU 22 Short Course: Scientific visualisation: Visualise your data effectively and avoid common pitfalls

On Thursday, 26 May, YHS organized a short course at EGU 2022 in a hybrid format, where Lina Stein, Edoardo Martini, Swamini Khurana, with inputs from Navid Ghajarnia and Sarah Schneeman (Copernicus Imaging team) presented salient features of scientific visualisation and how to create publication ready figures using R and python. Guillaume Vigouroux demonstrated how Inkscape can be used to make simple edits without going back to the code, and to combine numerous figures into one figure.

The course materials are available below:

Github link for scripts

Jamboard for audience engagement about how to improve figures

The presenters can be contacted vie email for any questions and follow-ups:

  • Line Stein: lina.stein@uni-potsdam.de
  • Edoardo Martini: edoardo.martini@ufz.de
  • Swamini Khurana: swamini.khurana@gmail.com
  • Guillaume Vigouroux: guillaume.vigouroux@natgeo.su.se
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Profile Series: Shashank Bhushan (he/him)

Let’s get the basics. Name, where you are from, and your current affiliation and advisor?

Hi, I am Shashank Bhushan, I grew up in Patna, Bihar, a city located in the floodplains of the river Ganges in India. I am currently a PhD student in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Washington. I am advised by Dr. David Shean.

What is the research you are currently working on?

For my PhD dissertation, I have been learning and improving methods to derive high resolution topographic maps of the Earth’s surface from satellite imagery. If we have two or more of these topographic maps computed from images acquired at different times but over the same region, we can compare them to accurately measure the changes in the ground surface over that particular region! For the “science” component of my thesis, I use this technique to study the surface evolution of High Asia glaciers, document the rates at which the glacier ice is thinning or thickening, and analyze how fast or slow these glaciers are moving. 

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EGU 2022: Short course: Research, services and policy exploring the role of hydrologists

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EGU 2022 Great Debate

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South Asia Drought Monitor

A Streams of Thought contribution by Swamini Khurana (she/her), in conversation with Toma Rani Saha (she/her) and Pallav Kumar Shrestha (he/him)

The South Asia Drought Monitor (SADM) is a portal where people can monitor the condition of soil moisture in the South Asian subcontinent using time varying maps. SADM focuses on monitoring agricultural drought at a high-resolution (~27 km) (Saha et al., 2021). The portal transfers information from science to practice; scientific jargons are bypassed and the soil condition is presented as six categories of dryness, varying from no dryness through to exceptional drought. It is well known that drought is a creeping phenomenon that expresses itself through soil moisture which moves slowly. Therefore, in addition to monitoring, SADM also provides the opportunity to look into the near future based on current soil moisture conditions.

Caption: South Asia Drought Monitor displaying the 2009-2010 drought in the region.
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Profile Series: Aspen Anderson (she/her)

Let’s get the basics. Name, where you are from, and your current affiliation and advisor?

My name is Aspen Anderson and I am originally from Colorado, USA. I received a BSc in Geophysical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines. I am currently a Ph.D. candidate with Dr. Diana Allen at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, BC. 

What is the research you are currently working on?

My Ph.D. research focuses on fresh groundwater availability in coastal deltas. Many cities that are built on coastal deltas, like Vancouver, rely on groundwater to meet freshwater demand. My research uses numerical modeling to understand what geomorphic conditions affect delta formation and how this ultimately impacts the groundwater system.

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Profile series: Pertti Ala-aho (he/him)

Let’s get the basics. Name, where you are from, and your current affiliation, advisor and profile?

I am Pertti Ala-aho, from Oulu Finland. I am a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oulu, Water, Energy and Environmental Engineering.

What is the research you are currently working on (projects/funding/teaching)?

My central focus is on snow isotope hydrology. I want to understand just how important snowmelt is for ecosystem water use and in recharging our water resources in groundwater and streams. Other important research themes and methods for me are numerical modeling and new snow hydrology measurement technology. My ongoing Postdoctoral Research Fellow project “Where does water go when snow melts” is funded by the Academy of Finland.

Share your experience of recent personal Academy of Finland (AOF) competitive funding you won and what would be your tips for young hydrologists applying to AOF funding.

The basis is a novel research question and a clear impact of your research, which you can articulate The basis is a novel research question and clear research impact, which you can articulate well. The competition is fierce, so you need to have an x-factor that sets you apart from other applicants. For me it was a 2-year postdoc position at the University of Aberdeen Northern Rivers Institute, which gave me a great opportunity to grow my international network and publish with some of the leading scientists in hydrology. You should find, or create, that something to raise the necessary extra interest, whatever that may be.

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The art of science communication

Gökben Demir (GD) in conversation with Sam Illingworth (he/him) and Louise Arnal (she/elle) from Consilience and ConciliARTe

Consilience is an inclusive online journal that provides space for people’s exploration between art and science. While Consilience creates a bridge between poems and science, ConciliARTe (part of Consilience) builds that connection with audio and visual arts.

Consilience special issue themed Geoscience

Gökben Demir (GD) caught up with Sam Illingworth (SI), founder of Consilience and Louise Arnal (LA), co-editor of ConciliARTe, to have a chat about how science and arts meet via Consilience and ConciliARTe.

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YHS Statement on the Russian invasion of Ukraine

We note with great sadness and worry the Russian invasion in Ukraine. We call on Russia to stop the unprovoked aggression immediately. 

Ukrainian and Russian students and early career researchers both in the conflict zones and abroad will be impacted by current events and should not be forgotten. We encourage the global scientific community to keep them in mind, and support them as much as possible in continuation of their research. The current conflict will have far reaching consequences on progress of science in both Ukraine and the world. 

We applaud the bravery of the Russian scientific community in calling out their government for the invasion.  At the same time we are deeply concerned about the cessation of research partnerships built over decades between Ukraine, Russia and the rest of the world. While all actions short of aggression should be considered to bring an end to the conflict, scientific relations should only be ceased with a heavy heart. We see science as a powerful diplomatic tool and an important step in reclaiming peace. 

We, at YHS, call for an end to violence in all forms, and stand in solidarity with all  academic and scientific communities in both countries who do so as well.

We would like to take this chance to express our solidarity with all victims of violent conflict, in any of its forms, in every part of the world. Beyond science, beyond hydrology.

Further resources for displaced scientists:

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Interdisciplinary research: insights from ECRs with diverse modelling backgrounds

A Streams of Thought contribution by Clare Stephens, Danlu Guo, Nevenka Bulovic, Fiona Tang, Anna Lintern and Pallavi Goswami.

As part of the MODSIM conference held in Sydney, December 2021, a group of around 30 Early Career Researchers (ECRs) gathered in-person and virtually for a workshop on interdisciplinary research. We heard from three inspiring speakers: Prof. Gabriele Bammer, Prof. Corey Bradshaw and Dr. Arunima Malik, followed by break-out group discussions about our own experiences guided by the speakers. This article summarizes our thoughts and lessons learned.

Source: Unknown. Licensed under CC BY-SA-NC

Challenges identified for interdisciplinary research

Most of the workshop participants had limited experience with interdisciplinary research, and they identified a number of barriers that have made it difficult for them to get involved. Many of these challenges were related to career metrics and funding policy in Australia and elsewhere. Interdisciplinary research may not align with the indicators we need for career progression, which tend to reward fast publication rather than encouraging research across broader disciplines and diverse teams requiring substantially more time to develop. Funding for interdisciplinary research can be difficult to obtain in countries where impact is measured with respect to a particular field of research (as is the case in Australia). Similarly, job applications tend to relate to a specific area of expertise and the participants felt that there was less demand for interdisciplinary scientists. Time pressure is also a key issue, which makes it difficult for ECRs to learn about topics outside their main areas of focus, particularly as employment is often tied to funded projects with little flexibility in the role.

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Call for applicants – YHS Board

The Young Hydrologic Society (YHS) is a bottom-up initiative to stimulate the interaction and active participation of young hydrologists within the hydrological community.

Founded in October 2012 the YHS is currently run by a team of enthusiastic MScs, PhD students and post-docs from several universities across the world. The YHS board members manage the day to day YHS activities: organising conference sessions, creating blog posts and running the YHS twitter account.

YHS is organised as a group of committees supported by the president and secretary. Each board member usually serves a two-year term.

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EGU Early Career Scientist Rep for Hydrological Sciences (2022-2024): applications open

Screen Shot 2022-03-02 at 2.51.52 pmPlease find details and how to apply How to apply for EGU-HS rep. Please see the EGU ECS page for eligibility.

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COP26: Using science for diplomacy

A Streams of thought contribution by Francesca Casale.

In November 2021, I attended the COP26 in Glasgow, the Conference of Parties of the UNFCCC (United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change). I have been attending the COP since 2017. It is always an interesting experience. I have had the opportunity to meet a lot of people from all over the world and to exchange learnings and ideas.

As a member of the civil society, I attended COP26 as an observer. In practice, observers can attend some of the plenaries, the informal sessions, and the bilateral meetings with national delegates. Observers are admitted to the conference to guarantee the transparency of the process. Through the constituencies, observers can ask the delegates for some improvements to the draft and decision texts.

At COP26 I was part of the delegation of Italian Climate Network, an Italian NGO focused on environmental divulgation, especially during the UNFCCC negotiations. As an organization, we work with young people in primary and secondary schools in Italy, organizing lessons on climate change and environmental issues.

Bridging science with action-oriented decisions

During the COP26, our principal task was to report on negotiations. So, I followed the negotiation sessions, and I reported the progress through some articles on the Italian Climate Network website (e.g., nature based solutions to achieve climate goals, cop26-towards-the-second-week) I also attended a lot of side events, to better understand the negotiation process and to integrate my knowledge about scientific, social, and economic aspects of the discussion themes in COP26.

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Profile series: Antonio Annis (he/him)

Let’s get the basics. Name, where you are from, and your current affiliation/ advisor and profile?

I’m Antonio Annis, from Italy, currently CEO and Co-founder of GRIDDIT Srl and research fellow at the Water Resources Research and Documentation Center (WARREDOC) at Università per Stranieri di Perugia. My advisor and partner in the Company is Prof. Fernando Nardi.

What is the research you are currently working on?

My main activities are:

  1. Hydrogeomorphic models and scaling laws for floodplain mapping,
  2.  Integration of satellite data and Crowdsourced observations in data assimilation frameworks for near real time flood forecasting,
  3.  Multilayer green roofs for urban flood risk mitigation, and
  4. Supporting the coordination of a European project focused on the Water-Energy-Food Ecosystem. In parallel, I’m also carrying on activities related to the development of the services related to the GRIDDIT Startup. We are developing a web service related to hydro-meteo risks and their socio-economic impacts.
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“An Inspiring Hydrologist Behind the Hydrology Paper of the Day Twitter page!”

contribution by Navid Ghajarnia (NG) to Hallway Conversations (HC)

Dr. Nicholas J. Kinar (NK) is the Assistant Director of the Smart Water Systems Laboratory at University of Saskatchewan with the Global Institute for Water Security. Many hydrologists know Nicholas from his Twitter page, Hydrology Paper of the Day (@KinarNicholas)! At YHS, we decided to have a Hallway Conversation with Nicholas to get to know him better and to introduce him from a different perspective to the hydrology society. During the interview, he was kind, enthusiastic and full of positive energy! Read this interview and you’ll get a new perspective and a warm feeling when you read Hydrology Paper of the Day on Twitter from now on!

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Profile Series: Francesco Avanzi

Let’s get the basics. Name, where you are from, and your current affiliation, advisor and profile?

My name is Francesco Avanzi and I am from Milan, Italy. I earned my PhD in snow hydrology and physics as the Politecnico di Milano, with visiting periods in Switzerland and Japan. After a postdoc at UC Berkeley (CA), I am now back to my home country and work at CIMA Research Foundation, an applied-research center focusing on civil protection, disaster mitigation, and aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems conservation.

What is the research you are currently working on (projects/funding/teaching)?

I contribute to CIMA’s mountain-hydrology research, meaning that most – if not all – CIMA projects related to snow, glaciers, and mountains in general are on my agenda. My duties include developing and deploying operational flood- and water-resources forecasting chains, implementing snow and glacier models, validating snow-satellite data products, and formulating new data-assimilation techniques. I also serve with my colleagues as an operational flood forecaster in support of the European Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) and advise undergrad and grad students.

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GEOframe Winter School 2022

The fourth edition of the Winter School on GEOframe-NewAge GWS2022, organised by the University of Trento, will be held online and onsite on 20 – 22 December 2021 and 10 – 14 January 2022.

GEOframe is a system for doing hydrology by computer. By saying that it is a system, we emphasize that it is not a model but an infrastructure that can contain many differentiated modelling solutions (some tens of that) that are built upon models components. This is because GEOframe leverage on the Object Modelling system-framework (v3) that allows to connect modelling components to solve a specific hydrological issue together and having many alternative for its mathematical/numerical description. This infrastructure allows adapting the tools to the problems and not viceversa. GEOframe has been applied to hydrological simulations from the point scale to large catchments as the Blue Nile, and among those is being deployed to the Po river (the largest in Italy) with great detail. GEOframe is open source and built with open source tools.

You can find all the information about the event and the programme at this link.

Click here for registration related information.

The GEOframe crew. 

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IAHS-YHS Workshops at the Great Rivers of Africa Conference in Cotonou, Benin

English version. Scroll down for the French version.

Each year the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IASH) which is an association to promote hydrological sciences in the world organizes an event (Assembly, conference, etc.). Thus, during the 4th edition of the international conference on the hydrology of large African rivers in Cotonou, Benin from November 13 to 20, 2021, the IAHS SYSTA awardees, in collaboration with the Young Hydrologic Society (YHS), will organize two workshops for early career scientists (ECS). The aim is to connect ECS attending the conference and stimulate their active participation in the more established hydrological sciences community through workshops on one or more scientific themes in hydrology. In the upcoming Cotonou conference, there will be two workshops on the following themes:

  • The use of open-source data and tools in hydrology (Main organizer Dr. Djan’na Koubodana, African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Kigali, Rwanda), and
  • How to write a scientific paper in hydrology (Main organizer, Dr. Kossitse Venyo Akpataku, Université de Kara, Togo).
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Hallway Conversations – Zahra Kalantari (October 2021)

Contribution by Samaneh Seifollahi (SS)

Zahra Kalantari is an Associate Professor in Environmental and Engineering Geosciences for Sustainability in the Anthropocene and a Docent in Physical Geography. She is affiliated with Royal Institute for Technology, KTH, and Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden. Zahra is also the Director of Navarino Environmental Observatory (NEO) in Greece, and a Research Area Co-Leader for Landscape processes and climate within Bolin Centre for Climate Researchat Stockholm University. Her research focuses on understanding of earth and human systems, technology and innovation solutions to planet’s most pressing environmental challenges related to the change effects of climate, land- and water-use in terrestrial environments.

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Profile Series: Josefin Thorslund

Department of Physical Geography, Stockholm University (Sweden) and Utrecht University (Netherlands)

My name is Josefin Thorslund, I am from Sweden and I’m currently working at the Department of Physical Geography, both at Stockholm University and at Utrecht University, through a mobility grant funded by the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development; FORMAS.

I’m a hydrologist with a background in water quality assessment. My current research project is about freshwater salinisation, both assessing its large-scale drivers and quantifying its impact on quality-driven water scarcity, particularly for the irrigation sector around the world. This is needed because elevated salinity of freshwater resources is a common water quality issue, which could strongly affect water availability.

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Profile series: Danlu Guo

Let’s get the basics. Name, where you are from, and your current affiliation and advisor?

My name is Danlu Guo, currently working as a postdoc research fellow in the Department of Infrastructure Engineering, University of Melbourne. My supervisor is Prof Andrew Western.

What is the research you are currently working on?

I’m currently working on an ARC Linkage Project (LP170100710) – a collaboration between Melbourne University and Rubicon Water. My recent work focuses on developing an uncertainty-based framework to inform irrigation scheduling using ensemble weather forecasts.I’m also collaborating with NSW Natural Resources Committee on the identifying and explaining the long-term trends in water quantity and quality in forested catchments throughout NSW.

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Online Networking Event with H3S and YHS!

What: Online networking event organized by H3S and YHS

Who: Early career hydrologists

When: 10th June 2021, 15:00 UTC

Register here: Meeting Registration – Zoom

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Challenging Workplace Negativity

EGU’21 held a Great Debate: Challenging discrimination in the geosciences: amplifying unheard voices. I started thinking about all the conversations I have had over the past few years. Every day I hear more and more accounts of countless people facing difficult situations at their workplace. Situations where it was plain as day that they were being discriminated against. Situations where people walked away, made them feel  as if they were at fault when they were harassed or abused. Equally importantly, some coworkers have been in situations where it was difficult to identify the source of the negativity; were they being systematically discriminated against, or did they just have bad co-workers? As with many things in life, there is often no simple answer here.

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How to write (and publish) a scientific paper in Hydrology

At EGU 2021, we had a panel discussion featuring Dr. Wouter Berghuijs, Dr. Manuela Brunner, and Dr. Tim van Emmerik on how to write (and publish) a scientific paper in hydrology. The session was very well attended with >100 participants joining from different parts of the globe. The presentations are available at the following links.

Stop thinking about rules, think about readers (Wouter Berghuijs)

Telling a compelling story (Manuela I. Brunner)

A practical guide to dealing with disappointments in publishing (Tim van Emmerik)

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Hydroinformatics for hydrology: Bayesian methods

The short course on ‘Hydroinformatics for hydrology’ was run at vEGU21 for the sixth time already, but due to the pandemic the first time as a virtual version. Dmitri Kavetski managed to present a broad overview of ‘Bayesian methods in environmental modelling and data analysis’, including various applications and the theory behind. Bayesian methods is another short course that provides a deep insight into a certain topic of general interest from an experienced researcher who is happy to share his knowledge with others. We would like to thank Dmitri Kavetski for holding the short course and sharing his slides, which can be found here:

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Call for Applications – YHS National Representatives

About YHS

At YHS we like to connect with as many young hydrologists (graduate students and early career scientists) around the globe as possible and think one good way to facilitate this is through active YHS representatives in every country. This might be you?!

Ideally, each country has a small group of active members that form the board of a YHS National Branch. They organize events for their peers in-country, are the links to their national hydrological organization(s) and the global early-career hydrology community.

This is how we envision the YHS connecting to you and your peers. Please have a look at some of the national branches on our website, to learn about their activities (https://younghs.com/).

Are you interested? Please join us!

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YHS events during vEGU21

Short Courses:

ECS Networking events

  • HS & GI ECS-networking event Mon, 26 Apr, 12:30–13:30 (CEST)
  • ECS Union-wide Networking Event Tue, 27 Apr, 19:00–20:00 (CEST)
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YHS Board Members (2021-2022)

Announcing the expanded board for the year 2021-2022!

Chair: Lina Stein

Affiliation: University of Bristol

Sentence about your research: My research focus lies on flood generating processes and how they connect to climate and catchment. 

What’s one thing you’d like to achieve with YHS this year? My aim this year is making sure YHS transitions well into the extension of the Board. With many new people involved we have a chance to advance YHS as a broad and diverse advocate for early career hydrologists.

Secretary: Elena Cristiano

Affiliation: University of Cagliari

Sentence about your research: I am working as Postdoc in the field of urban hydrology, focusing on green roofs and other nature-based solutions to mitigate pluvial floods, to adapt to climate changes and to create smart and resilient cities.

What’s one thing you’d like to achieve with YHS this year? I want to help YHS grow and offer opportunities for young researchers to support their academic growth, through activities focused on enlarging the network, discussing hydrology and interdisciplinary topics. I think that, especially in this difficult period, where contacts are limited, there is the need to strengthen the network among young researchers, supporting each other and consolidating collaborations.

Treasurer: Hannes Müller-Thomy

Affiliation: TU Braunschweig

Sentence about your research: The generation of rainfall on different spatial and temporal scales and its application in a variety of models, ranging from urban hydrological modelling over crop modelling to water resources management.

What’s one thing you’d like to achieve with YHS this year? Due to the world-wide pandemic and the cancellation of so many workshops and conferences I would be happy if YHS can bring young scientists further together to share their thoughts and ideas!

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We are looking for your feedback!

The Blog Committee 

Correspondence to: Y. H. Society (younghydrologicsociety@gmail.com)

Dear Hydrological Community and Early Career Academic friends,

With a bigger #YHS team in 2021, we are planning to expand the blog! Which topics do you want to read about? Below is a preliminary list; follow the link to vote!

  • Profiles featuring the research and careers of ECAs
  • Tips on funding and career planning
  • Tips on presentations, posters and other academic skills
  • Advice on the transition from academia to industry
  • Examples of hydrology research leading to positive change
  • Experiences of hydrologists moving abroad
  • Experiences of underrepresented groups in research
  • Technical discussions on particular research topics
  • Visions for the future of hydrology from senior researchers
  • Other (please specify)

Please share this poll (linked again!) with friends and colleagues to get as many opinions as possible. We’d also love to see lots of blog submissions from our members this year, so please remember us when you meet someone amazing, publish something cool or want to start an interesting discussion!

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