May
18
TGIF! Weekly Water News Summary, 12 – 18 May 2012
May 18, 2012 | Posted by Michael "Aquadoc" Campana
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Time for your weekly dose of displacement behavior.
Nothing special to say, except that if you are in the Corvallis area today, please note:
The Oregon State University student water group Hydrophiles has organized a stellar water resources research symposium today, 18 May 2012, at OSU’s Memorial Union, Rooms 211, 212, and 213. The building is ‘MU’ on the campus map, at the corner of SW Jefferson Way and SW 26th Street.
Hydrophiles was just named the AWRA Best Student chapter. Congratulations to the entire group! Check out the year’s activities:
Download Hydrophiles_Review_2011_2012
Here you go…just click here and enjoy!
“We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming.” – Werner von Braun
May
17
Dr. Robert Lackey’s AFS Plenary Address: Science – Beacon of Reality
May 17, 2012 | Posted by Michael "Aquadoc" Campana
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Friend and colleague Dr. Robert Lackey presents his American Fisheries Society 141st Annual Meeting (2011) plenary address, Science: Beacon of Reality.
As was his OSU lecture last week, it’s quite provocative and perceptive. In many ways it covers the same territory: science and policy.
Give it a view – it’s a about 33 minutes.
Enjoy!
“I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy.” - Richard Feynman
May
11
TGIF! Weekly Water News Summary, 5 -11 May 2012
May 11, 2012 | Posted by Michael "Aquadoc" Campana
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Another birthday visits me this weekend. No complaints here – really.Couldn’t ask for a better life. Maybe fewer aches and pains, but that’s no problem, considering the alternative.
Mary Frances and I have finished the cookies in the picture above – now for some of the ‘adult beverages’. My favorite such libation is shown to the left.
We’ll cook birthday dinner on Sunday – risotto.
In the meantime, enjoy this week’s summary. I expect to be back next week.
“Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most live the longest.” - Unknown
May
9
Hotels, Beware: Homey Don’t Do Internet Charges!
May 9, 2012 | Posted by Michael "Aquadoc" Campana
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After I spent 48 hours in Calgary, it was 24 hours in Portland. AWRA Executive Director
Ken Reid flew in to check out prospective venues for our 2013 annual conference, which I will chair. I decided to accompany him on his visits.
One of the venues was the downtown Hilton (breakfast hosted by Susan Renner and Susan Henberry) which kindly comped me for a Sunday night stay so I would not have to arise early Monday morning and battle rush-hour traffic. The others on our itinerary were the Doubletree (lunch with Jenny Baird) and the Red Lion at Jantzen Beach (Cyndi Holloway).
Our guide for the day was Desiree (Des) Everett of Travel Portland, an organization that functions as Portland’s convention and visitors bureau. Des knows her stuff and was a delightful person.
Ken has been doing this – negotiating with hotels – for about 30 years. It’s amazing to watch him work - a true artiste. He seemingly knows everyone in the business – a great icebreaker – and has a great sense of humor and timing. He knows when to push and when not to, when to joke about something and when to get serious (no room set-up fees, please!), when to slather praise and when to ease up.
Internet charges in the meeting space? No way! Resort fees? Don’t even think about them! Fees to in-house A-V providers if we choose to use another vendor? In your dreams! Unreasonable food and drink minimum? HA!
The day was topped off by a great dinner courtesy of Des and her boss, Mike Smith. It was great learning from them about how Portland is marketed to the outside world. It was especially fascinating to hear how Mike devised a marketing alliance among Portland, Pittsburgh, and Milwaukee – a trio of cities that don’t really compete against each other but have similar characteristics. It has worked very well.
Unexpected treat: saw former student Tara Davis at the Doubletree where she was attending a conference.
Check out the food and drink I accumulated – from the Hilton and Travel Portland. I actually benefited from Ken’s inability to take the ‘adult beverages’ back on the plane so he gave me his share. Mary Frances and I will have some cookies for our after-dinner teas for a while.
So who’s the winner? We’ll have to see what the revised bids are.
Homey had a great day and learned a lot – back in Corvallis by 9:30 PM.
“Homey don’t do room set-up fees.” - Ken Reid
May
4
TGIF! Weekly Water News Summary, 28 April – 4 May 2012
May 4, 2012 | Posted by Michael "Aquadoc" Campana
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This week’s post comes to you from Calgary, the ‘Houston of Canada’ located in Alberta, the ‘Texas of Canada’ (in more ways than just oil and gas). Calgary is the headquarters for Canada’s hydrocarbon industry, but it’s more like Denver than Houston what with the gorgeous Rocky Mountains in the (more distant than Denver) background. That’s the Bow River in the picture.
I am here for 48 hours to participate in Hydrogeologists Without Borders Board of Directors retreat.
Here is this week’s summary. Enjoy your weekend!
“A nation that fails to plan intelligently for the development and protection of its precious waters will be condemned to wither because of its shortsightedness. The hard lessons of history are clear, written on the deserted sands and ruins of once proud civilizations.” - President Lyndon B. Johnson(1908-1973) Letter to the President of the Senate and to the Speaker of the House, transmitting an Assessment of the Nation’s Water Resources, 18 Nov. 1968
Apr
27
TGIF! Weekly Water News Summary, 21 – 27 April 2012
April 27, 2012 | Posted by Michael "Aquadoc" Campana
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Still trying to fathom the difference between nerds and geeks. More proof that I have too much time on my hands. Or not.
Don’t forget to check out groundwater geek.
PhD oral exam this morning, then off to Salem for my first ‘live’ meeting of the GWAC (Groundwater Advisory Committee), and then a late-afternoon meeting with Brenda Bateman of OWRD.
Click here for the news.
Enjoy!
“There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don’t.” – Unknown
Apr
23
Summary of AWRA’s 2012 GIS and Water Resources Conference
April 23, 2012 | Posted by smcclung
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The 2012 AWRA Spring Specialty Conference on GIS & Water Resources VII was held March 26 to 28, 2012, in New Orleans, Louisiana.
As with previous conferences in this series, the call for abstracts brought presentations and posters showcasing the most exciting work being done in the field of geospatial technology and water resources. Topics covered a truly immense body of work as more applications of GIS and remote sensing to water resources continue to be developed. Sessions ranged from flood risk and emergency management to climate change; from hydro-fracturing impacts to new concepts for sharing analyses. Geospatial applications and web services spanning PCs, tablets, and smartphones were presented by the engineers and scientists applying them in new ways, as well as by the developers and researchers who created them. The Program Coordinator, Sandra Fox of Saint Johns River Water Management District, said “We couldn’t have been happier with the quality, breadth and relevance of the abstracts. Innovative approaches spanned the whole range of water resources challenges.”
From the opening plenary to the last session on Wednesday it was clear that geospatial technologies have reached a tipping point. The Conference Chair, Jack Hampson of Atkins, described it as: “Thanks to smartphones and tablets, geospatial technologies are now so widely used that we have a flood of new resources ranging from map-driven communication with the public to collaboration on complex water-management challenges. For instance, in order to balance flood risk, water-supply needs, water quality and quality of life, you have to understand the unique character of each watershed. There is no cookie cutter. Truly understanding any watershed requires data from a wide range of sources, and the one thing all these data share is location, or a geospatial component. As geospatial technologies are becoming more widely used, they are becoming much more powerful and cost-effective and the data we require is growing more reliable and accessible. This conference is a chance to explore how these new information technologies help us define, identify and address the water-related challenges we face now and in the future.”
Setting a tone of excitement for the whole conference, the keynote speaker was Colonel Robert Ruch, commander of the Omaha District of the US Army Corps of Engineers. Colonel Ruch highlighted the role that geospatial technologies played during Operation Mighty MO — the flood fight of the Missouri river during 2011. The 2011 flooding along the Missouri exceeded all previous flooding, both on record or predicted, and significant effort was expended trying to protect life and property. Colonel Ruch explained that new applications of GIS technologies were crucial in providing accurate risk communication to the public, broader and more efficient methods of sharing information, and improved allocation of engineering resources. He described a new USACE smartphone app that allows instantaneous capture and transmission of location-tagged inspection photos, enabling rapid prioritized responses, with site visits, repair crews, and follow-on inspections. He also indicated that accurate LiDAR (topographic) data, obtained from the Iowa Department of Transportation, was crucial in helping to save the city of Hamburg, Iowa during the flood. The LiDAR data allowed hydraulic engineers to compute with confidence the arrival time of flood waters from a nearby levee breach so that an emergency levee could be constructed. Colonel Ruch described how the data and the resulting analyses were validated with heart-pounding swiftness – within hours of completing the emergency levee, the floodwater arrived and the new levee held. It was correctly sized and the town was saved from a major disaster. In a plenary panel that followed the keynote, information technology leaders from NOAA, USGS, EPA, and the USACE joined the director of the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science to discuss challenges, opportunities, and new initiatives to share and integrate their data, analytic tools, and expertise using new technologies such as cloud-based data catalogues and web services.
Another first at this year’s conference was an Executive Track composed of two sessions: The Executive Session on Water Resources Information Technologies – Directions, Drivers and Opportunities organized by Katherine Lins, Chief, Office of Water Information, WRD, USGS and the Executive Session on World Water Online organized by Dr. David Maidment, University of Texas at Austin and Steve Kopp of ESRI. Panelists for the first session included Daniel Fay of Microsoft Research Connections, Sean Maday of Google Geospatial, Mark Demulder, USGS, Eric Loubier of NRCan. Of additional note was a new session focused on using geospatial decision support tools in the Atchafalaya Basin. Organized by Scott Wilson, Chief, Spatial Analysis Branch, USGS, National Wetlands Research Center, this session brought sharp focus to this important water resource.
On Wednesday, the AWRA Award for Exemplary Contributions to Water Resources Data and Information Systems, now called the David R. Maidment Award, went to Jeffrey D. Simley, USGS. Under Jeff’s stewardship the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) has emerged as a vital digital foundation for water resources planning and analyses in support of the nation’s water resources. NHD and NHDPlus form a common framework under which flood risk determination, water quality improvement and water supply planning can be integrated. Over the last ten years Jeff has been instrumental in building a community and stewardship framework under which the ongoing growth of the NHD has flourished, achieving critical mass to ensure its constant update and improvement and its ongoing vitality as a trusted source.
Thanks to the rapid expansion of its subject area, this biennial conference, next scheduled for 2014, will be renamed: Geospatial Technologies and Water Resources VIII. AWRA is pleased to announce that the Conference Chair for 2014 is Robert M. Wallace, Ph.D., P.E.; Chief, Computational Science and Engineering Division, US Army Engineer Research and Development Center, US Army Corps of Engineers. Rob lead the development of the cutting edge geospatial and information solutions that supported the USACE emergency response described by Colonel Ruch in his keynote address, and Rob was a visionary member of the 2012 conference organizing team. Upon being selected for this honor, Rob said: “I better check with my wife first.”
Apr
20
Leadership in Deploying New GIS Technologies is highlighted at AWRA’s 2012 Spring Specialty Conference in New Orleans
April 20, 2012 | Posted by smcclung
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| Date: | April 14, 2012 |
| Contact: | Mary Ashton |
| Phone: | (540) 687-8390 |
| Emal: | April 11, 2012 |
Strong leadership and geospatial technologies are critical to managing water resources according to national experts featured at AWRA’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) & Water Resources Conference held March 26 – 28 in New Orleans Louisiana
During his keynote address at AWRA’s GIS and Water Resources Conference on March 26, Colonel Robert Ruch, commander of the Omaha District of the US Army Corps of Engineers, highlighted the use of new GIS smartphone applications in sharing critical technical information among experts and improving the allocation of engineering resources during the record Missouri River floods in 2011. “It made all the difference,” he said. Additionally, Ruch credited new geospatial capabilities with boosting public involvement and, in combination with new LiDAR data, for helping engineers compute with confidence the arrival time of flood waters in order to help save the City of Hamburg, Iowa.
“Geospatial technologies have reached a tipping point,” stated Conference Chair, Jack Hampson of Atkins Engineering and Design Consultants. “Thanks to the proliferation of smartphones and tablets, we now have a flood of new resources ranging from map-driven communication with the public to collaboration on complex water-management challenges among a full range of professionals and stakeholders. Now the GIS challenge is one of leadership: to deploy and use this technology to its fullest benefit.”
In a plenary panel that followed Colonel Ruch’s presentation, leaders from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) United States Geological Survey (USGS), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Corps of Engineers joined the director of the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science to discuss their use of other new technologies such as cloud-based data catalogues and web services.
In recognition for exemplary contributions to water resources data and information systems, Jeffry D. Simley of USGS was awarded AWRA’s prestigious David R. Maidment Award for his stewardship of the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD), a vital digital foundation for water resources planning and analyses in support of the nation’s water resources.
American Water Resources Association (AWRA) has been a proponent of using a multidisciplined approach for gathering and assessing data for managing water resources since its establishment in 1964.
“Truly understanding any watershed requires data from a wide range of sources. The one thing all these data share is location, or a geospatial component. Every watershed is different: there’s no cookie cutter approach for balancing flood risk, water-supply needs, water quality and quality of life. This gathering of experts from across the country made that exceptionally clear” according to Hampson. “Geospatial technologies are becoming more widely used, powerful and cost effective as the data itself is growing in reliability and accessibility.”
According to Conference Program Coordinator, Sandra Fox of Saint John River Waste Water Management District, “Innovative approaches in using geospatial data span the whole range of water resources challenges. AWRA’s program explored how these new technologies can help water resources managers and policy makers better address the water-related challenges we face now and in the future.”
AWRA’s next GIS conference scheduled for 2014 will be chaired by Robert M. Wallace, Ph.D., P.E., Chief, Computational Science and Engineering Division, US Army Engineer Research and Development Center, US Army Corps of Engineers.
A more detailed summary of this conference is available by clicking below.
ABOUT AWRA: The American Water Resources Association is dedicated to the advancement of water resources management, research, and education and a balanced approach towards solving water resources challenges. AWRA’s membership is comprised of professionals who share a common interest in working and learning across a wide range of multidisciplines focused on water resources policy, practice, and academic pursuits. Members include engineers, foresters, biologists, hydrologists, geologists, chemists, ecologists, GIS professionals, geographers, planners, soil scientists, economists, attorneys, planners, educators, students, community leaders and policy makers.
Apr
20
TGIF! Weekly Water News Summary, 14 -20 April 2012
April 20, 2012 | Posted by Michael "Aquadoc" Campana
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Earth Day is about here and will be upon us in two days. Even better – Earth is still here! And I just hit 3,000 followers on Twitter. 
Time for some hydraulic displacement behavior! Click here.
Enjoy!
Apr
13
TGIF! Weekly Water News Summary, 7 -13 April 2012 (Triskaidekaphobia Day!)
April 13, 2012 | Posted by Michael "Aquadoc" Campana
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Two down, one to go: 13 July will also be a Friday the 13th, the third one this year, each one 13 weeks apart.
Unusual!
But since the Maya predicted the world was going to end in 2012, it is suitable that we go out with a bang.
Click here to access your weekly water news.
And be careful!
“Exhilaration is that feeling you get just after a great idea hits you, and just before you realize what’s wrong with it.” – Rex Harrison (from The Week)
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