CWRA Spring Water News now online!

Promoting Effective Water Management
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Remember to check for jobs posted between newsletters. Jobs are posted as soon as we receive them.

University of Windsor
CRC NSERC Tier 2 in Environmental Engineering
Location: Windsor, ON

The University of Windsor invites applications for an NSERC Canada Research Chair (CRC) Tier 2 in the Faculty of Engineering at the rank of Assistant or Associate Professor (tenure-track). This opportunity is open to candidates who self-identify as Black (e.g., African descent/African heritage people from the Caribbean, Americas, Europe) Women. As gender expression takes many forms, applications from candidates who identify as a woman are welcomed. Anticipated start date: Sept 1, 2022 (or later).

Did you know that CWRA members enjoy a 10% discount on job postings? If you would like to post a job on our website and have it announced through our bi-weekly eblasts, email info@cwra.org for rate information.

Bi-weekly Paper Series

Approaching summer, and as we look forward to holidays, warmer weather, and more outdoor time, the CWRA Bi-Weekly Paper Series has a few thought-provoking papers guaranteed to remove the last vestigial traces of our collective "cabin fever" from long months of indoor activities. The papers in this installment represent foundational concepts and novel techniques in hydrology. McMillan (2022) provides an easy-to-understand classification of hydrological processes and a standardization of terminology. Walker et al. (2022) introduces the idea of understanding drought from a medical diagnosis perspective. Hamilton et al. (2022) provides an understanding of relationships between infrastructure and partnerships in California. Kavanaugh and Moore (2010) use a novel electronic circuit for measuring glacier borehole water pressures at a lower sampling rate. Vero and Doody (2021) examine Nitrogen (N) and Phosphorus (P) biogeochemical cycles and pathways for farms using a nutrient transfer continuum framework.

1. Hamilton AL, Zeff HB, Characklis GW, Reed PM. 2022. Resilient California water portfolios require infrastructure investment partnerships that are viable for all partners. Earth’s Future DOI: 10.1029/2021EF002573

Using the California Food-Energy-Water System to understand infrastructure and partnerships: the Central Valley of California; project ownership, project type and scenarios for five decades; and further research.

2. Kavanaugh JL, Moore PL. 2010. A peak-capturing measurement circuit for detecting and recording short-duration glacial signals. Journal of Glaciology 56 (195): 41–47 DOI: 10.3189/002214310791190956

A novel circuit for detection of short-duration glacier borehole water pressure events: differential, peak detector and voltage follower op-amps for a lower sampling frequency and determination of longitudinal stress transients.

3. McMillan H. 2022. A taxonomy of hydrological processes and watershed function. Hydrological Processes 36 (3) DOI: 10.1002/hyp.14537

A novel organization of hydrological processes: a comprehensive literature review; 130 processes with a hierarchical structure (Domain, Class, Process, Subprocess); and applications to watersheds in the UK and New Zealand.

4. Vero SE, Doody D. 2021. Applying the nutrient transfer continuum framework to phosphorus and nitrogen losses from livestock farmyards to watercourses. Journal of Environmental Quality 50 (6): 1290–1302 DOI: 10.1002/jeq2.20285

Understanding pathways of N and P transport for farmyards in the UK and Ireland: application of a conceptual framework; examination of sources and transport processes; and drainage networks, research, and management applications.

5. Walker DW, Cavalcante L, Kchouk S, Ribeiro Neto GG, Dewulf A, Gondim RS, Martins ESPR, Melsen LA, Souza Filho F de A, Vergopolan N, Van Oel P. 2022. Drought Diagnosis: What the Medical Sciences Can Teach Us. Earth’s Future 10 (4) DOI: 10.1029/2021EF002456

Indicates why drought and climate change can be managed using ideas from medical diagnosis: a novel framework to identify regional geographies; why one solution is not optimal in all regions; and misdiagnosis, consultation, and case studies.

Meet our Members

1. What do you do as a career? What do you like about it?
I am a multi-disciplined Registered Landscape Architect and member of the British Columbia Society of Landscape Architects (BCSLA), CLARB certified. I started my career as a Registered Nurse (now retired) and I hold a CTech in building design (ASTTBC – retired), and a BA in Urban Geography. I embarked on a new career journey in 1988 as a human factors research and accessibility consultant. I began the process of becoming a landscape architect in 1995 at UBC and graduated in 1999 to become a BCSLA Intern. My professional seal was acquired in 2010.

I loved working on my thesis in Landscape Architecture and was focused on children's learning, and social and health development in outdoor, inclusive classrooms beside a naturalized park with wetlands. I enjoyed applying multiple skills to solve research and design problems as to how people are able to access nature and green spaces. I believe in the healing power of nature, and I love the beauty that often surrounds us and helps sooth our thinking, gives respite, and offers retreat and peace. I like to work in collaborative, evidence-based research and design services in restoration planting design, accessibility for people and children with disabilities, healthcare, and culturally significant landscapes.

2. When did you first join the CWRA?
I attended my first CWRA event in May 2001 in downtown Vancouver, with my brother, Richard Rodman, P.Eng., of Rodman Hydrotechnical, Nelson, BC. I joined the CWRA shortly thereafter.

3. Why do you like being a part of the CWRA?
I enjoy the opportunity to network and sought the opportunities to submit on proposal calls with a few of the CWRA firms. The CWRA has webinar topics that are of interest to my work in terms of understanding topics such as floodplain mapping, erosion control on stream corridors, diking, and planning to keep healthcare facilities and extended care homes off floodplains for example. It also afforded me the opportunity to organize a conference session on water quality and public health, allowing CWRA members to hear the perspectives of the healthcare profession on the importance of water resource management, and impacts of pharmaceuticals in drinking water. It was particularly helpful for me during my efforts to pass my LARE exams in grading, to have several firms step forward to allow me into their offices to do grading exercises on real projects. I have Associated Engineering and Northwest Hydraulics to thank for their kind efforts to move me along my career path. And finally, my father was a Civil Engineer who worked in water resource management overseas, so membership allows me to meet some of the engineers who worked internationally.

4. What are you most excited for once we return to a pre-pandemic normal?
Excited to be able to eat out with a friend or family members. Excited to be able to see the healthcare professions return to ‘normal’ levels of anxiety! Hoping to see an improvement in world health trends and less conflict leading to human displacement and resettlement. Hoping to witness less fear in health-vulnerable populations so that they can re-integrate into their normal activities of daily living. Perhaps we have learned some lessons over the past years of COVID, and I would be excited if we had a new order of sensitivity toward others.

5. Tell us something new you have learned about yourself since the beginning of the pandemic.
I have learned that it was okay to be alone a lot working in isolation. Tough to do when you are people person and dependent on sitting across from someone in a meeting, reading body language. I found I could find ways to fill the long hours in isolation. But I also feel that life is too short to not share my life with someone. I also learned that life is too short to dwell on the negativity that can often land in your hands and as a single person, and cope with it. I would rather thrive than survive and to do so, one requires company to share the journey with. COVID woke me up to the need to be interdependent.

Other News You Can Use

This newsletter is being sent to you from alongside the Columbia Wetlands, in the Upper Columbia River basin, on the traditional lands of the Ktunaxa Nation.