Call for Abstracts Now Closed for J-H01

Organiser: IAHS (ICRS, ICSW, ICGW, ICWRS, PUB, GRACE), IAG, IAMAS
Lead Convenor: Mohsin Hafeez (Australia)
Co-Convenors: Makoto Taniguchi (Japan), Earl Bardsley (New Zealand), Roland Pail (Germany), Frederique Seyler (France), Nick van de Giesen (The Netherlands)

Scope: This session focuses on the recent advances in GRACE, other remote sensing platforms, and ground based methods for estimating spatial/temporal surface water balance, spatially averaged water budgets, hydrodynamics, hydrological processes, and characterization of ground water system in gauged and un-gauged basins at regional and global terrestrial scales.

New satellites, such as GRACE, SMOS, and METOP, are starting to generate hydrological parameters that have large potential for water managers in data sparse environments. Sensors as radar altimeters, primarily designed for ocean or ice studies, are now used for monitoring continental waters. Optical-thermal satellite based evapotranspiration measurement techniques have been extensively used for water accounting from farm to irrigated catchments over the past decade. Another example is the recently developed modelling technique using GRACE satellite provides estimates of terrestrial water storage and their temporal changes. Finally, the “Predictions in Ungauged Basins” initiative (PUB) could focus on remote sensing models and estimates of spatially-averaged water budget components across scales and beyond catchment boundaries. In parallel, advances in ground-based measurement techniques, such as distributed temperature sensing, geological weighing lysimeters (gwl), and geophysical surveys are finding their way into research and practice for characterizing the hydrological parameters by more efficient means.

This symposium seeks to bring together specialists from different disciplines to produce a review of the state-of-the-art of direct and indirect physical measurement techniques for water resources management over the full range of terrestrial spatial scales from pixel to continent. Papers are invited on the estimation, validation, and error/uncertainty assessment of hydrological parameters such as actual evaporation, soil moisture, recharge, seepage, percolation, and runoff in farms, irrigated/dryland systems, and gauged/un-gauged catchments at multi temporal scales.

Call for Abstracts Now Closed for J-H02

Organiser: IAHS (ICCLAS, ICSW, HYDROMET), IAMAS
Lead Convenor: Stewart Franks (Australia)
Co-Convenors: Eleanor Blyth (United Kingdom), Eva Boegh (Denmark), Koray Yilmaz (United States of America), David Hannah (United Kingdom)

Scope: The interaction between the land surface and the atmosphere is fundamental to understanding the nature of hydro-climatic variability and change. Despite this, many future climate scenarios for assessing future hydrological and climatological change are weak in terms of the role of and impacts on evaporative and sensible heat fluxes, soil moisture, maximum temperatures and hence future hydrologic regimes are largely uncertain. In this symposium, we aim to provide a comprehensive review of studies and methodologies for assessing future land surface hydrologic regimes. In particular, we seek contributions to this symposium on the following suggested themes:

• Measurement and estimation of land surface fluxes
• Integrated remote sensing of evapotranspiration within modelling studies
• Use of empirical models of evapotranspiration
• Methods for estimating future land surface fluxes under a changing climate
• Trends in hydro-meteorological/climatological variables
• Change Detection/Attribution studies using hydro-meteorological records
• Changing land surface fluxes under natural modes of variability
• Extreme events

Organisers: IAHS (ICSW, ICWRS), IAMAS, WMO, BOM Australia
Lead Convenor: Bruce Stewart (Australia)
Co-convenors: Gabriel Arduino (WMO), Hege Hisdal (Norway)

Scope: Settling on flood plains has enormous advantages, as is evident from the very high densities of human settlement in, for example, the Netherlands and Bangladesh. Disaster mitigation approaches that restrict the occupation of flood plains and wetlands can limit the potential of these lands for socio-economic development. The balanced management of floodplain areas is thus important element to flood management. Integrated Flood Management (IFM) integrates land and water resources development in a river basin, within the context of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), with a view to maximizing the efficient use of flood plains and minimizing loss to life. Thus, occasional flood losses can be accepted in favour of a long-term increase in the efficient use of flood plains. End-to-end IFM initiatives will require combinations of flood management practices including structural and non-structural approaches working in harmony with flood plain development activities. This session will focus on Integrated Flood Management in general and in particular advances in flood forecasting and warning capabilities.

Organisers: IAHS (ICGW, ICWQ), IAPSO
Lead Convenor: Makoto Taniguchi (Japan)
Co-Convenors: Thomas Stieglitz (Australia), Donald Rosenberry (United States of America), Kate Heal (United Kingdom), Jean-Francois Exbrayat (Germany), Bo Gustafsson (Sweden)

Scope: This session deals with the interaction between the surface water/groundwater and ecosystems in the coastal zone.  Fresh water (including groundwater and river water) dependent ecosystems (FDE) frequently occur in wetlands, terrestrial vegetation, riparian areas, coastal zones, coral reefs and cave ecosystems.  Critical damages or more gradual changes in composition and/or ecological function of communities are expected in these areas according to climate change and/or human impacts on hydrological settings.  On the other hand, the degradation of vegetation can conversely cause a shift of the related hydrological environment including water quality and water mass balance. The approaches for quantifying hydrodynamics in watersheds and submarine groundwater discharge in coastal areas are now becoming better established. Thus, it appears to be time to integrate such interactions between ecosystems and river water/groundwater systems.  This session provide contributions to the broad examples collected in a variety of fresh water dependent ecosystems in the coastal zone, including field observations and model predictions.

Organisers: IAHS (ICSIH, ICLAS, ICRS, ICGW, ICSW, PUB), IAMAS, IACS
Lead Convenor: Danny Marks (United States of America)
Co-Convenors: Michael Lehning (Switzerland), David Collins (United Kingdom), Mark Seyfried (United States of America), Regine Hock (Sweden), John Pomeroy (Canada), Marc Parlange (Switzerland)

Scope: Changes in storage of water as seasonal snowpack, frozen ground, and perennial snow and glacier ice, and release of meltwater are major components of hydrological systems in the high mountain regions of the world. In such areas, the annual cycle of meltwater production from snow and ice is critical, influencing streamflow regime, soil moisture, and both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Meltwater availability is crucial in cold mountain environments and in areas downstream, for agriculture and hydropower, particularly where the areas surrounding mountains are otherwise arid and susceptible to drought. Mountain snowpack, permafrost, glaciers and meltwater runoff will continue to be influenced strongly by climate change into the future. Detailed understanding of and the ability accurately to model inter-relationships between climate, snowpack, ground ice and glacier dynamics coupled with intra-basin hydrological processes are necessary in order to test hypotheses concerning contemporary and future interactions between high mountain climate, snow, ice, runoff, biogeochemistry and water quality. This symposium addresses a broad range of topics important for better understanding of snow and ice hydrology in mountain regions and for reducing uncertainty and increasing physical realism in modelling and prediction under climate change. Contributions on the following topics are particularly welcome: measurement and monitoring techniques for snow and ice in cold mountainous regions; physical properties of snow, permafrost and ice – parameterisation of microscale properties for macroscale prediction; using remote sensing for improvement of prediction of runoff from snow and ice in data-sparse mountain areas; forecasting meltwater runoff from ungauged high mountain basins; assessment of risk and prediction of glacier lake outburst floods in mountain areas, and impacts of mountain snow and ice hydrology on water resources in drier downstream areas in a changing climate.

Organisers: IAHS (ICSIH), IACS
Lead Convenor: Bryn Hubbard (United Kingdom)
Co-convenors: Steffan Vogel (United States of America), Robert Bingham (United Kingdom), Helen Fricker (United States of America) 

Subglacial water represents one of the most important yet poorly-understood aspects of glaciology. It exerts a key control over the dynamic behaviour of glaciers and ice sheets, contributes to unique ecological habitats, and acts as a potent geomorphic agent. For example, a growing number of remote sensing and ground-based observations across Antarctica and Greenland are highlighting the existence of subglacial water in a variety of forms, ranging from vast subglacial lakes (providing distinctive habitats for potentially unique life forms) to mm-thick water flows at the ice-substrate interface. These hydrological phenomena have great potential to impact on ice dynamics – from the scale of valley glaciers to large ice sheets - feeding back into the response of ice masses to climate change and their consequent contributions to changes in sea level. The precise nature of this control is far from well-constrained, despite the sensitivity of numerical models to (what are currently at best approximated basal sliding terms).

Characterizing the role of basal meltwater quantitatively therefore remains an important outstanding glaciological problem, as does structuring and scaling that knowledge for use in models of ice mass motion. However, it is difficult to access the base of ice masses, and it is perhaps even more challenging to characterize spatio-temporal variations in the water that may be present there. These challenges continually drive the application of innovative methods and new technologies in the investigation of subglacial water.

We solicit scientific contributions that include, but are not limited to, measurements and/or modelling of: (i) water flows at the ice-mass bed and through subglacial sediments; (ii) feedbacks between ice-mass hydrology and ice dynamics, and the impact of that relationship on ice-mass response to climate change; (iii) theoretical-, field-, or laboratory-based parameterization of basal hydrological processes, including the application of innovative technologies; (iv) formation, geometry and potential linkages between subglacial lakes; (v) subglacial lake drainage and meltwater outbursts from ice-mass margins; and (vi) geomorphological evidence of subglacial water flows from contemporary ice-sheet margins and across formerly glaciated regions.

Call for Abstracts Now Closed for H01

Organsiers: ICGW, ICSW, ICWQ, ICWRS
Lead Convenor: Gunnar Nützmann (Germany)
Co-Convenors: Corina Abesser (United Kingdom), Mary C. Hill (United States of America), Richard Evans (Australia), Noel Merrick (Australia), Günter Blöschl (Austria), Elango Lakshmanan (India), Honglang Xiao (China)

Scope: Flow and transport processes in the surface and subsurface waters have been historically modeled separately. For example, regional groundwater models often simplify exchange with surface flow models, and the interaction between channel flow and the aquifer is often described within the framework of transient storage. Additionally, biogeochemical and ecological processes have a major impact on water quality and the management of water resources, through the important role they play in a number of surface – subsurface environments, like in the hyporheic zone. From small-scale to large-scale approaches physical and biological mechanisms are of interest driving and affected by water and solute transfer between the surface and the subsurface controlling surface water and groundwater quality and riparian ecology. Recently, there has been considerable effort spent in coupling these different types of models and to develop integrated tools, which could describe interactions between groundwater, surface water and ecological systems.
The session solicits laboratory and field studies with a focus on the development and application of novel modelling methods to investigate physical and biogeochemical processes at the groundwater-surface water interface both at rivers and lakes. Suitable contributions include data collection strategies and programs and how data are used to test and improve models. Model sensitivity analysis and uncertainty evaluation in the context of integrated hydroecologic studies is also of interest. Contributions may also include investigations of the implications of groundwater - surface water interactions at their interface for management and risk assessment.

Call for Abstracts Now Closed for H02

Organisers: ICSIH, PUB
Lead Convenor: Daqing Yang (United States of America)
Co-Convenors: Alexander Gelfan (Russia), Phil Marsh (Canada), Doerthe Tetzlaff (United Kingdom)

Scope: The high latitude and lowland cold regions of the globe are experiencing some of the most rapid changes in climate. These also represent one of the most severely ungauged regions on Earth and suffer from sparse meteorological observations. Although the hydrology of these regions is dominated by snow and ice, our understanding of the hydrological response to a changing climate over cold regions is incomplete. Changes in hydrology related to changing frozen soils, snowfall/rainfall ratio, snowcover, river and lake ice, glacier cover and vegetation are not well known. Our ability to model the effect of these changes on both the fluxes of energy and water between the land surface and the atmosphere, soil and water bodies needs improvement. A particular issue for modelling is the impracticability of model calibration due to the sparse gauge network and rapid climate change. There is also lack of knowledge on process emergence with scale change across these regions. This session will address major issues and challenges in cold regions hydrological research and applications with an emphasis on snow and ice hydrology. It will examine changes in the characteristics and functioning of rivers, lakes, and wetlands in cold regions, and their interactions with changing human activities and ecosystems. It will explore and examine the biological, physical, and social impacts of hydrological and climatic change in cold regions.

Call for Abstracts Now Closed for H03

Organisers: ICWRS, ICSW, ICWQ,
Lead Convenor: Günter Blöschl (Austria)
Co-Convenors: Kuni Takeuchi (Japan), Sharad Jain (India), Andreas Farnleitner (Austria), Andreas Schumann (Germany)

Scope: One of the most important constraints in Water Resources Management is the incomplete knowledge of water resource systems, both as to their current dynamics and their future evolution. Risk is a concept that helps make management decisions under incomplete knowledge by relating water related hazards and their consequences. In Water Resources Management there exist a variety of risks, risks related to floods and droughts, risks related to health, as well as economic and financial risks.

There exists a general risk for the planned outcome of management activities if changes of boundary conditions (e.g. water uses, hydrological conditions, legal framework) could affect the performance of projects. Under these circumstances risks which result mainly from incomplete knowledge about developments in the future should be integrated in all planning decisions.  Within the framework of this symposium, different sources of risk in water management will be addressed as well as tools to specify and to manage them. The recent WHO guidelines e.g. stipulate a risk based approach to water-related health issues and there are also advances in other risk based approaches driven by the new EU flood directive.

While many disciplines face the issues of risk, they face them in different ways. In hydrogeology, the difficult lies in accurately estimating flow and transport paths. Microbial processes relevant to hygienic risk are relatively well understood for individual species in the laboratory, but for a mixture of species at the field scale process are less well defined. In surface hydrology, the stochasticity of rainfall is one of the main sources of uncertainty. In many cases, the specification of consequences e.g. by damage assessments provides a major challenge.

The purpose of this symposium is to bring together the various concepts of risk, tools and methodologies to specify them and new approaches to address risk in decision support systems.  The focus will be on risk assessment as well as on measures to reduce risk within the framework of water resources management. Contributions are solicited that address aspects of water related risks in a broad way in order to integrate across the disciplines and/or sectors and thus contribute in a pro-active way to water resources management. Papers are sought that contribute to the understanding of individual risks in Water Resources Management. Papers that combine and/or compare various risk types are particularly encouraged. It is suggested that the concept of risk may provide a unifying theme in Water Resources Management. There are four main themes:

• Specifying risk for water management
• Individual and systemic risk
• Tools to consider risk in planning decisions
• Risk awareness in operational water management

Call for Abstracts Now Closed for H04

Organisers: ICWQ, ICCE, ICWRS, UNESO
Lead Convenor: Jake Peters (United States of America)
Co-Convenors: Valentina Krysanova (Germany), Ahti Lepistö (Finland), Martin Thoms (Australia), Rob Wilby (United Kingdom), Rajendra Prasad (India), Sarantuyaa Zandaryaa (UNESCO)

Scope: Climate change coupled with geographically heterogeneous population growth, land use change, increasing urbanization, and changing water use are expected to have major effects on water supply and water quality. Increasing precipitation variability is expected to cause changes in runoff generation, and increases in frequency of floods and droughts. The consequences of increasing temperature will likely cause shifts in biological systems and changes in reaction rates for many biotic and abiotic processes. Climate change effects on streamflow, timing of snowmelt, timing and magnitude of groundwater recharge, ecosystem responses, and impacts of changing land cover and land use are likely to affect water quality. But what changes are expected to occur and where? The frequency of outbreak of blue-green algae in lakes, reservoirs and lowland rivers is likely to increase with climate change. The management of water supply and sanitation is controlled by water availability. For example, the quantity and quality of effluent discharge is determined by the quantity and quality of receiving waters. A reduction in streamflow would mandate a reduction of effluent discharge to maintain current water quality. Increasing air temperatures would result in higher stream temperatures causing a reduction in dissolved oxygen due to increased biological activity.

Several aspects of climate change influence both stream water quantity and quality. Water quality in many streams and waterbodies of the world is already inadequate, and this tendency could continue under the changing climate. This workshop aims to evaluate different types of effects of climate variability and change on water quality in natural systems, and compare them with the effects of human activities. Papers on the following issues are invited:

• observed trends in water quality in rivers and waterbodies and their relation to land use and other human activities and climate;
• interdependence of water quantity and water quality aspects in climate impact assessment;
• modelling climate change effects on water quality: tools, climate scenarios, regional applications;
• climate change and land use change interactions with freshwater ecosystems
• potential impacts of adaption strategies of water quality to changing water resource availability;
• evaluation of air, land, and water management strategies, e.g., flow control, emission control, waste management

Organiser: ICCE, ICT, ICWQ, PUB
Lead Convenor: Valentin Golosov (Russia)
Co-Convenors: Des Walling (United Kingdom), Jon Olley (Australia), Gerd Dercon (Austria)

Scope: Recent decades have seen a major expansion of the application of tracer techniques in sediment research. New methods and approaches have been developed and existing tracer techniques have been refined and improved. The resulting advances have permitted the development of a more detailed understanding of the spatial-temporal dynamics of sediment in the fluvial system. Important advances have been made in a number of areas. These include, firstly, the development of an improved understanding of sediment redistribution in small catchments, which provide the main source of sediment to rivers in areas under intensive agriculture. Secondly, major progress has been made in refining sediment source fingerprinting techniques, which have been widely applied in many different environments around the globe. Thirdly, detailed investigations of rates and patterns of floodplain deposition, involving a number of different tracers, have permitted a greatly improved understanding of the role of river floodplains as sediment sinks and facilitated the validation of sediment transport models for floodplain systems. Fourthly, combination of tracer techniques with other methods and approaches has greatly facilitated the historical reconstruction of the evolution of fluvial systems. Finally, tracers have been used very successfully to investigate the source, transfer pathways and fate of sediment-bound nutrients and contaminants within the environment. Many advances in the application of tracers in sediment research demonstrate that their use is frequently most successful when combined with other techniques and approaches.

Against this background, there is a need to review the advantages and limitations of a wide range of tracer techniques used for studying sediment mobilization, transport, deposition and storage within different components of the fluvial system in different global climatic and landscape zones. This workshop will facilitate such a review, by including presentations on the application of a wide range of tracer techniques in sediment studies and a round table discussion of different facets of tracer applications including sampling strategies, sampling procedures, sample preparation and analysis and data analysis and interpretation. The topics to be addressed will include:

• Assessment of the temporal dynamics of sediment mobilisation, transport and deposition using tracers
• The use of tracer techniques for establishing sediment budgets
• Use of tracers in spatial-temporal analysis of sediment redistribution in small catchments
• Assessment of sediment sources in catchments and river basins
• Use of tracer techniques for reconstructing transformations of the fluvial system in response to land use and climate change
• Use of tracer technique for investigating floodplain evolution and the role of floodplains as sediment sinks
• Application of tracer techniques for investigating the mobilisation, transfer and fate of sediment-associated nutrients and contaminants in the fluvial system
• Use of tracer techniques for assessing the effectiveness of soil and water conservation measures

Organiser: ICGW, ICWQ
Lead Convenor: Henning Prommer (Australia)
Co-Convenors: Ilka Wallis (Australia), Paul Pavelic (India), Elango Lakshmanan (India)

Scope: A wide range of managed aquifer recharge (MAR) techniques such as aquifer storage and recovery (ASR), aquifer storage transfer and recovery (ASTR), and river bank filtration are increasingly used to supplement drinking water supplies and/or to more actively manage water resources. While in most cases subsurface passage and storage have a beneficial effect on water quality in aquifers, there are also cases where groundwater quality may deteriorate, for example, due to the mobilisation of trace metals This can impinge on the economic or technical feasibility of MAR operations.

This session seeks contributions that investigate and improve our understanding of hydrogeological and/or geochemical processes that affect the quantity and quality of water recovered from MAR operations.  We are inviting both field and numerical modelling studies, including groundwater flow and reactive transport. Papers presented in this session may address

• the impact of physical/chemical subsurface heterogeneity on water quality evolution during MAR
• redox processes and their impact on the fate of micropollutants and chemicals of concern
• mobilisation of metals and attenuation processes
• use of novel tracers and isotope methods
• injection of desalinated water and resultant geochemical responses
• development and applications of specific modelling tools and techniques

Organisers: ICGW, ICT
Lead Convenor: Howard Reeves (United States of America)
Co-Convenors: Craig Simmons (Australia), Mohamed Jalludin (Republic of Djibouti), Chunmiao Zheng (United States of America/China)

Scope: Regional groundwater flow models are developed for several reasons: to investigate the effects of development on regional groundwater resources; to manage groundwater resources to support river flows and ecosystem services, to prevent excessive intrusion of poor-quality water, to limit excessive drawdowns and associated land subsidence; or to evaluate potential changes to groundwater resources resulting from projected land-use change or climate variability.  These models have a large areal extent and typically span multiple aquifers; consequently, the models may have many parameters.  There may be many observations of different types that must be considered in calibration.  Because of these features, model development and calibration is often challenging.

This workshop will examine many aspects of regional groundwater flow modelling, and papers are invited on all aspects including:

• conceptual model development, what can be modelled on a regional scale?
• special challenges and new innovations in regional model calibration,
• numerical solution techniques for models with millions of nodes,
• use of remote sensing techniques to estimate stresses or boundary conditions,
• reconciling the spatial scale of the model with the desire to simulate interaction with surface-water features,
• challenges presented by water-quality limitations such as saltwater intrusion,
• techniques for effective communication of results for multiple audiences, and techniques to link regional groundwater flow models to local-scale models capable of addressing local questions.

Organisers: ICSIH, ICGW, ICSW
Lead Convenor: Danny Marks (United States of America)
Co-Convenor: Michele Reba (United States of America)

Scope: This poster only session encourages papers on all aspects of snow and ice hydrology including physical principles underlying hydrological behaviour with snow and ice involvement, measurement using remote sensing and surface observations, snow and ice processes and hydrological prediction in regions where snow and ice affect flow regimes. The storage and modulated release of water from snowpacks and glaciers are major components of hydrological systems in many parts of the world, particularly in mountainous and circumpolar areas. In these regions, the seasonal snowcover, permanent snow and glacial ice are critical components of the annual water cycle, controlling soil moisture, soil temperature, streamflow, and the development and stability of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. This session will bring together operational, experimental and modelling experts to address a broad range of topics that are important to understanding this important resource. The session is scheduled for an entire day to facilitate interactions between snow and ice hydrology and related researchers.

Organisers: ICSW, ICRS
Lead Convenors: Ashley Webb (Australia)
Co-Convenors: Mike Bonell (United Kingdom), Leon Bren (Australia), Pat Lane (Australia), Don McGuire (Australia), Dan Neary (USA), Jami Nettles (USA), David Scott (Canada), John Stednick (USA), Yanhui Wang (China)

Scope: Most of what we know about the hydrological role of forests is based on paired catchment experiments. These experiments typically utilise a before-after-control-impact (BACI) design where two neighbouring forested catchments are jointly monitored during a calibration period of several years, after which one of the catchments is kept untouched as a reference (control), while the second is submitted to a forest treatment (impact). There are many variations in the design of these experiments which may include multiple control and treatment catchments or comparative studies in the absence of a calibration period. Experimental catchments have produced a considerable amount of knowledge since the first true experiment initiated over a century ago in the mountains of Colorado (Bates and Henry, 1928). Despite the difficulties of maintaining long-term experiments, many are still running today. The objective of this symposium is to go beyond the existing reviews of catchment experiments (Andréassian, 2004; Bosch and Hewlett, 1982; Bruijnzeel, 2004; Brown et al., 2005; Hibbert, 1967; Stednick, 1996), and to create momentum in order to promote a revisit of the experimental catchment datasets. Indeed, we believe that we have not exploited the full potential of the long-term datasets of many catchments, and that much remains to be learnt from ongoing and past experiments. Our objective is to gather forest hydrologists from all over the world, in order to share experimental catchment results and promote a renewal of international collaboration on this topic.

Papers on the following themes are particularly welcome:

Abstracts are invited that address one or more of the following workshop themes:

1. Addressing new questions using historical datasets
Data from many experimental forest catchments were typically analysed using the traditional approach, i.e. "calibrate, cut then publish". However, there is scope to revisit many of these datasets to address questions beyond the scope of the original studies. What can control catchments tell us about the effects of climate change on water yields or known climatic cycles (e.g., ENSO, NAO events) on rainfall variability? Are there ways that paired catchment data could be reanalysed to tease out forest treatment impacts upon low flows versus high flows or lag-times between treatments and measured effects? Are there new streamflow metrics or statistical methods that can be used?

2. Impacts of Fires and other disturbances
What have we learnt or can we learn from experimental catchments about the impacts of climate variability (and change) on droughts, fire frequency, fire intensity and consequent hydrological effects? Is there a role for hazard reduction burning to ameliorate these impacts and if so, how effective is it? What are the hydrological impacts of other disturbances such as pine beetle attack?

3. Water Quality and Freshwater Ecology
What have we learned from catchment experiments about the impacts of forest treatments on soil erosion, sediment transport and water quality? Do we have sufficient baseline data for comparison with other land uses? Are these data able to be used as a reference for anthropogenic impacts or as targets for restoration? What do we know about atmospheric inputs? What are the effects of forest treatments on freshwater ecology, e.g. organic matter cycling, macro-invertebrate and fish populations? Can data from catchment experiments be utilised to derive indicators of river condition applicable to forest management?

4. Defining the "Forest" in Forest Hydrology
Many catchment-scale forest hydrology experiments and corresponding reviews, classify land cover into broad groups such as forest (e.g. native forest or plantation) or non-forest (e.g. grass/pasture or woodland). There is a need to better describe and quantify the forests in these experiments to elicit relationships between factors such as tree species, stocking and growth rates and their hydrological impacts on surface and groundwater resources. Water use information from experimental catchments needs to be scaled upwards to regional / national scales with high precision to guide water allocation and policy decisions. Can data on the forests in forest hydrology experiments be better captured with new technology such as Lidar? Is there scope to integrate plot-scale tree water use data or information on macro- and micro-soil properties with catchment-scale hydrological data?

5. What can we learn from tropical experiments for forest soil and water management under various climate change scenarios?
Climate change is accelerating the hydrological cycle so that some temperate basins are behaving more like tropical basins. Tropical basins are experiencing an unprecedented rate of land-use change that can destroy water quality or increase the incidence of pluvial- or fluvial-flooding. Could techniques recently developed during research within temperate basins be used to better monitor and predict change in tropical basins? Equally can the recent renaissance of hydrological research within the tropics driven by this land-use change add new insights into the impacts of global change within temperate regions? In particular, we seek a new evaluation of the hydrological differences between temperate and tropical basins, given the constraints of experimental and model uncertainty.

6. Ground water – surface water interactions
How does forest cover affect groundwater recharge? What can we learn about ground water and surface water interactions from catchment experiments? Do we sufficiently understand streamflow generation mechanisms? Are there new methods that could be used, e.g. luminescent dissolved oxygen, isotopes, telemetry or modelling? What do we know about groundwater storage linked with low flows for community water supply and ecosystem services? What are the implications of these interactions for hydrological connectivity within forested catchments and consequent effects on sediment transport and water quality?

7. Ecosystem Services
There is scope to revisit catchment experiments in the context of ecosystem services. What is the marginal value of water from forests compared with other land uses? How do we value and market services such as carbon sequestration, water quality and biodiversity in forested catchments?

8. Policy Applications
In the light of revisiting experimental catchment studies in forest hydrology there is scope to apply new knowledge to forest management practices. Are the current forestry codes of practice, best management practices (BMPs), regulations and other policy instruments still appropriate? Are there contemporary policy questions that could be addressed by reanalysing historical or existing experimental datasets?

Organiser: ICSW, ICWRS, STAHY
Lead Convenor: Charles Perrin (France)
Co-convenors: Mark Thyer (Australia), Hoshin Gupta (United States of America), Jean-Emmanuel Paturel (Burkina Faso) 

Scope: The evaluation of hydrological models is a difficult task. You can use either visual assessment (simulated and observed hydrographs, scatterplots, etc.) or a multitude of statistics (Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency, RMSE, bias, etc.). Do the statistics agree with the expert judgement? How people think when they evaluate a model? Which statistics capture the expert judgements?

Prior to the workshop, a few models will be tested under a variety of conditions (Australia, France, United States, etc.) and an Internet-based server will be developed to gauge expert judgement. Participants to the workshop will be invited to undertake the evaluation survey which will consist in ranking the models' fit using the graphical results of the tested models for different objectives (flood prediction, yield estimates, low flow estimation).

The results of the survey will be analyzed and compared to the ranking of models obtained using a set of statistical measures. The aim is to test the hypothesis whether there is a link between the way expert thinks and statistical criteria that reflect the expert opinion.
For the workshop, presentations will be invited on:

• procedures for model assessment and comparisons
• meaning and use of statistical criteria versus expert judgement
• the role of uncertainties in model assessment

Researchers as well as practitioners will be invited to participate to this workshop.

Organisers: ICSW, ICCE
Lead Convenor: Christophe Cudennec (France)
Co-convenors: Houda Boudhraâ (Tunisia), Stephan Gruber (Switzerland), Scott Peckham (United States of America), Riccardo Rigon (Italy), Colin Stark (United States of America)

Geomorphology and hydrology are intimately intricate, through a large range of space and time scales, and for various organization levels (soil/substrate unit, hillslope, channel, watershed, lowland, wetland, geological structure, mountain ridge…). Geomorphology is a major structural determinant of many surface hydrological processes, as well as of many coupled quantitative processes and interfaces with the groundwater, the cryosphere and the atmosphere dynamics. It is also, consequently, strongly determining water-related suspended and dissolved dynamics, as well as ecological systems and relationships. Conversely, hydrology is a major driving force of geomorphological dynamics, under climatic forcing and in relation to both tectonics and geography. This refers to various issues, from palaeo-hydrology to landslide hazard assessment, and even to hydrological interpretations of planetary morphologies.

Through history, mankind has dealt with hydro-geomorphology through a wide range of empirical–conceptual approaches, in order to better control the ongoing dynamics, to secure water- and relief-dependent activities and to mitigate related hazards. This has been developed in more or less explicit ways, in very diverse environments (rural, forest, urban…), through infrastructures setting up and land cover management, i.e. through the adding of anthropogenic morphological features to the natural ones.

Hydro-geomorphology is renewed and enhanced by original approaches of data acquisition, management and modelling; especially through new field and remote sensors, hydroinformatics, geomorphometric and scaling analyses, analogous and mathematical models, and field experiments. Major new approaches of observation, analysis, conceptualisation and modelling should be brought together in a comprehensive framework. Contributions are expected in this sense to better understand the hydro-geomorphological dynamics and structures, and to link them to actual issues such as of integrated water and risk management, upstream-downstream impact assessment, sustainability of water resources and uses, eco-hydrology, traditional/modern techniques assessment, scaling and complexity understanding, regionalization and PUB methodologies.

Organisers: ICT, ICGW
Lead Convenor: Gian Maria Zuppi (Italy)
Co-convenors: Andrew Herczeg (Australia), Piotr Maloszewski (Germany), Yves Travi (France), Jean Pierre Ometto (Brazil)

Scope: Applied tracers, have been widely used to characterize groundwater flow paths and estimate water velocities. During the past several decades, applied tracers have been used increasingly in research settings to understand solute transport phenomena in karst, fractured rock and porous media aquifers, which have been motivated primarily by environmental concerns related to water resources evaluation, to disposal and release of wastes. However, there are many practical uses for applied tracers in environmental hydrogeology and groundwater remediation. Advances in chemical measurement technology have led to a significant increase in the diversity of constituents used as tracers, permitted quantification of significantly lower tracer breakthrough concentrations, and made high-frequency sampling economically feasible. Consequently, the practical use of tracers in environmental hydrogeology and groundwater remediation is quickly increasing.

The characteristic isotopic signature of many pollutants and the changes in isotopic composition during specific biological, chemical, and physical processes may yield unique information on the origin of pollutants and on their fate in soil and groundwater. Especially for natural attenuation studies, isotope analysis can provide essential information.

Conservative and reactive tracers can greatly aid in the design and evaluation of enhanced bioremediation strategies by providing a reliable way to measure in-situ contaminant decay, oxido-reduction processes rates, and zones of influence. The long-term application of tracers can used to evaluate hydraulic confinement and demonstrate containment.
Topics:

• Estimation of water origin, water flow and groundwater dynamics in heterogeneous systems by combined use of tracers and mathematical modelling;
• Estimation of pollutant transport and bioremediation processes using isotope methods.

Organisers: ICWRS, ICWQ
Lead Convenor: Nick van de Giesen (The Netherlands)
Co-Convenors: Saket Pande (The Netherlands), Junguo Liu (Switzerland), Johannes Cullmann (Germany)

Scope: The term Integrated Water Resources Management was originally defined during the Dublin conference in 1992. It emphasised the complexity of WRM, which should integrate over 1) all the water occurrences and interactions in the hydrological cycle; 2) all the different uses that society has of water and the interactions and feedback with the hydrological cycle; 3) the different temporal and spatial scales of the water resources and its use; 4) the full range of objectives (interests) and constraints of water resources utilisation; 5) the sustainability of water resources development and use; 6) process of implementation and the representation of stakeholders in the decision process. Mostly as a result of the efforts undertaken by the Global Water Partnership, the focus of IWRM shifted towards the process of implementation (item 6), largely due to the fact that in the past stakeholder involvement and participation had not received adequate attention. Also, in the years before Dublin much attention had been paid to so-called "policy analysis", which included the interactions between the water resources system, the water users system, and the economic system (items 1-5), but did not pay much attention to item 6. As a consequence, in recent years IWRM has been equated with the process, whereby the physical, technical and economical intricacies of changing boundary conditions, human interventions and the feedbacks that these interventions have on the different system elements have often been neglected. This symposium would like to help restoring the balance between scientific system knowledge and processes by addressing the complex interactions between hydrologic, ecologic, economic, social, financial and legal aspects of water resources development, water use and other human activities related to water. Integrated model chains are indispensable to assess the links and feedback mechanisms and project them onto human activities like energy production, shipping and water abstraction etc.

We invite all interested people to present and discuss integrated models and investigations about impacts of changing regimes or hydrologic/hydraulic conditions of water systems. The sensitivities to disturbances or system interventions and the uncertainties related with the predictions of these effects will be a key factor for adaptation measures and a proactive approach to IWRM that is needed in the future.

Organisers: ICWQ, ICCE
Lead Convenor: Berit Arheimer (Sweden)
Co-Convenors: Michael Rode (Germany), Scott Wilkinson (Australia)

Scope: The IAHS “Predictions in Ungauged Basins” initiative (PUB) has had focus on river discharge and water budgets in catchments. However, one of the major driving forces for PUB in many countries is mapping environmental status and estimating effects of control measures. For instance, the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) requires detailed reporting with high resolution, including ecological status and hydromorphological information of each defined waterbody. Since it is not possible to monitor everywhere, some kind of expert judgements is necessary for the reporting procedure. Methods for predictions of water quality and sediments in ungauged basins are thus highly requested and desired by practitioners. The hydrological research community can contribute with experiences from PUB in this context. However, model applications always include assumptions about unknown input data and unknown model coefficients and parameters. The increase in problems when modelling water quality and sediments are twofold: 1) The lack of information is increasing with the number of variables to be predicted, and thereby, the uncertainty is higher when modelling transport of substances compared to ordinary water predictions. 2) The monitoring programmes normally include only grab samples once a week or once a month, which does not reflect the temporal concentration variation in surface water. Hence, it is also difficult to calibrate and validate a model. This workshop asks for integrated methods, using PUB approaches for water quality and/or sediment modelling of waterbodies, river reaches and the catchment scale. It also welcomes clever assumptions for unknown input variables, monitoring strategies for various variables and purposes, and definition of evaluation criteria for data sparse variables and for spatial variation. Demonstration projects are especially appreciated to flavour the discussion with practical examples.

Organisers: ICWQ, ICWRS
Lead Convenor: Valentina Krysanova (Germany)
Co-Convenors: Hubert Savenije (The Netherlands), Jules van Lier (The Netherlands)

Scope: In 1950, about 30% of the global population lived in urban areas, at present it is nearly 50%, and the trend is expected to continue. As the rate of urbanisation began to accelerate, provision of clean drinking water and disposal of wasterwater for the large metropolitan areas and megacities became increasingly complex and challenging. The water quantity and water quality problems in megacities are often interrelated. Provision of clean potable water, and collection and disposal of wastewater have become serious problems for many megacities, such as Mexico City, Cairo and Calcutta. On the other hand, progress is being made, and innovative approaches are being successfully applied in many urban centres as well. Several recent studies have considered vulnerabilities of rapidly growing metropolitan areas to climate change, which can affect water supply and wastewater systems in many ways: e.g. via higher risk of flooding, climate-induced sea level rise in coastal areas, glaciers melt and increased water scarcity in arid and semi-arid areas. Papers on the following issues are invited:

• Interrelation of water quantity and water quality aspects in large metropolitan areas;
• Trends in water supply and water quality in  megacities under Global change;
• How science can help to assess and solve water quality problems in megacities?

Organisers: ICWQ, ICWRS
Lead Convenor: Uttam Sharma (India)
Co-Convenors: Xiuju Zhang (China), M. Datta (India), Mitsuo Saito (Japan), Andrew Ireson (United Kingdom), Neil Entwistle (United Kingdom)

Scope: The requirement of green water has increased many-fold with growing demand for food, biofuel production and carbon sequestration. At the same time, blue water requirement has also increased with expansion of municipal limits (urbanization), industrial growth, hydro-electric power production and irrigation needs. However, many anthropogenic and natural factors have polluted blue and green waters, resulting in decline in productivity in agriculture, industry, energy production etc. Green water quality is also important as well as quantity as excess salts in soil moisture reduce agricultural productivity. With greater attention to green and blue water linkages, there is a strong need to see rain rather than blue water as the basic water resource in a catchment, especially in semi-arid agriculture. The challenge is to find synergies and complementarities between green and blue water use for socioeconomic development and ecosystem management in the context of climate change and variability. The symposium will deal with the usefulness of catchment-based integration of conflicting water requirements, sequential blue water reuse and ways to secure compatibility between different water uses through green-blue water management. It will focus on new approaches and case-studies in adaptive management strategies such as rain as the basic water resource, major pollutants of green and blue water and their impact on productivity, reuse of polluted green and blue water. Papers on the following themes are particularly welcome:
1. Green and blue water interactions.
2. Implications of intensified plant production on runoff generation and groundwater recharge
3. Addressing synergies and complementarities between green and blue water in short and long-term planning.
4. Quality of green water and livelihood potential.

Organisers: STAHY, ICSW, ICWRS
Lead Convenors: Salvatore Grimaldi (Italy)
Co-Convenors: Demetris Koutsoyiannis (Greece), Antonino Cancelliere (Italy), George Kuczera (Australia), Hafzullah Aksoy (Turkey), Dan Rosbjerg (Denmark)

Scope: In the last twenty years many different statistical approaches were developed for the analysis of hydrological extremes, rainfall simulation in time and space, runoff forecasting and management, and many other hydrological applications. The introduction of new statistical methods and procedures resulted in improved hydrological analyses. This session, sponsored by the Statistics in Hydrology Working Group (STAHY‐WG), has two aims: the first one is to explore innovative statistical methods never applied before and the second one is to collect presentations describing the most recent theory, procedures and applications related to already known topics. The main attention is toward univariate and multivariate analysis (extreme value, inference procedure, copula function) and stochastic modelling (linear and non‐linear models, space‐time simulation procedures, time series analysis, long range dependence, non‐stationarity detection, point processes). Presentations and poster contributions on theoretical innovative approaches, advanced statistical and mathematical methods, and hydrological applications of mentioned procedures are encouraged.

Organiser: EDU
Lead Convenor: Arthur Askew (Australia)
Co-Convenors: Earl Bardsley (New Zealand), Raymond Vennecker (UNESCO–IHE), Harouna Karambiri (Burkina Faso), Tendai Sawunyama (South Africa)

Scope: Tertiary education in the hydrological sciences has evolved considerably over the last 10 to 20 years as a result of advances in the science itself and in the technology available to those organizing courses and supervising thesis research.  However, there has been a tendency for teaching and supervision to evolve along separate paths depending on the domain in which the hydrological sciences are taught, e.g. earth and environmental sciences, civil engineering, agriculture and forestry, etc.  The Assembly in Melbourne offers a valuable opportunity for those concerned with different themes of hydrological education to exchange ideas to help progress hydrology teaching in general over the coming years.

Participants are invited to submit papers on any aspect of tertiary education in hydrology, which might include:  the content and form of undergraduate and graduate courses; case histories of successes and failures in hydrology education; web-based teaching resources, hydrological data bases and other support material (e.g. models) and their utilization in education; developing systems for helping prospective thesis students to be matched with suitable supervisors around the world.

Organiser: IAMAS
Co-sponsors: IAHS, IAPSO, IASPEI
Principal Convenors: Michael MacCracken (United States of America), Alan Robock (United States of America)
Co-convenors: Larry Brown (United States of America), Ken Denman (Canada), Dave Jackson (United States of America), Dongxiao Zhang (China)

Scope: With the pace of climate change increasing and the array and magnitude of climate impacts intensifying, increasing attention is being paid to the potential for limiting the effects of anthropogenic climate change through large-scale geotechnical means, often called geoengineering. The most discussed approaches include deliberately altering the Earth's radiation balance and intervening in the carbon cycle or other biogeochemical cycles, for example via scrubbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Although specific approaches have been proposed, relatively little is known about their potential effectiveness and possible unintended consequences. Issues of technological feasibility are also largely unexplored. The set of invited presentations will describe and address the potential effectiveness and scientific and technical problems associated with deliberate climate modification, including the potential for enhancement of terrestrial and oceanic carbon sinks. Presentations will cover modeling studies of the climatic impacts of proposed schemes for altering the absorption of solar radiation; studies of unintended environmental consequences; and evaluations of technological feasibility. Recognizing that geoengineering raises a range of environmental, societal, and governance issues, perspectives on how these complexities interface with proceeding with scientific research and potential deployment will also be offered.
This symposium is continued in greater depth in the Joint Symposium J-M01/J-V06 “Geoengineering: Can it limit climate change and its impacts?”

Keywords: geoengineering, climate intervention, global warming, carbon sequestration, solar
radiation management

Options: All papers in this symposium will be invited. Please contribute abstracts to the related Joint Symposium J-M01/J-V06 “Geoengineering: Can it limit climate change and its impacts?” which will have both oral and poster presentations.

Organiser: IAHS
Co-sponsors: IACS, IAG, IAMAS, IAPSO
Principal Convenor: Pierre Hubert (France)
Co-convenors: Andrea Flossman (France), Manfred Lange (Cyprus), John Pomeroy (Canada), Paul Tregoning (Australia), Susan Wijffels (Australia)

Scope: Based on the observation of the continuous movement of water, the idea of a hydrological cycle appeared in the most remote antiquity, but the corresponding scientific concept was coined only three centuries below by Pierre Perrault and Edmund Halley, based on their measurements and water balance computations. Today the hydrological cycle is well known and taught as soon as in primary schools. But do we really understand this extraordinarily complex system, which operates over huge time and space scales, involves the flow of liquid, solid and vapour phases of water and whose processes shape the face of the Earth by impacting biology, geochemistry, geophysics, climatology and redistributing matter and energy? We still have a lot to learn about the hydrological cycle. To take only a few examples: what is the uncertainty regarding the Earth’s water inventory, water phase and fluxes?  Do we really know what a cloud is and how it behaves?  Can we predict streamflow from physical first principles? Do we really know the paths of water on the continents, between precipitation and the continental reservoirs of surface, ground, snow and glacier water and the oceans? This symposium will be devoted to these gaps which jeopardize many scientific and practical activities such as water resources prediction and assessment and to the ways to overcome them. All contributions from geoscientists developed in an interdisciplinary spirit will be welcome.

Keywords: Hydrological cycle, water cycle, hydrosphere, atmosphere, cryosphere.

Review: All contributed abstracts will be reviewed by the convenors.

Options: All contributed abstracts will be presented as posters. Only invited papers will be scheduled for oral presentations.

Invited Speakers: Frédérique Seyler (Représentation IRD), Gian Maria Zuppi (Insititute of Environmental Geology and Engineering National Research Council of Italy), Demetris Koutsoyannis (Technical University of Athens)

Organiser: IAGA – as part of IUGG Geoscience in Africa initiative and the eGY-Africa program.
Co-sponsors. IAG, IAHS, IAMAS, IAPSO, IASPEI, IAVCEI, African Geospace Society (AGS), Association of African Universities (AAU), Africa Earth Observing Network (AEON), AfricaArray; ICSU Regional Office for Africa, CODATA, International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP), UN Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies and Development (UN-GAID), U.S. InterAcademy Panel on International Issues (IAP); European Enabling Grid for e-Science (EGEE); Geoscience Information in Africa (GIRAF); and the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste (ICTP).
Principal Convenor: Charles Barton (Australia)
Co-convenors: Abdelkrim Aoudia (Algeria), Hussein A. Abd-Elmotaal (Egypt), Rabiu Babatunde (Nigeria), Harouna Karambiri (Burkina Faso), Christine Amory-Mazaudier (France), Daniel Nyanganyura (South Africa), Laban Ogallo (Kenya), Bamol Sow (Senegal), Maarten de Wit (South Africa).

Scope: The session will cover a combination of both the leading Earth and space science being undertaken and planned in Africa in the areas covered by all eight Associations, and also infrastructure issues (such as efforts to create a better professional environment for African scientists, open access to publications, internet connectivity, support for African science, education, and training). The symposium will provide (i) a forum for presenting and discussing the latest African geoscientific research, (ii) a cross-disciplinary view of geoscientific activity in Africa (Africa being the focus of the symposium), (iii) a stimulus for stronger interest and participation in African science by African and non-African scientists, and (iv) an opportunity to explore progress in creating a better professional working environment for people engaged in scientific research, education, and training in Africa.

Keywords: geoscience in Africa, integrated African research, unique African geoscience, research and education infrastructure, Internet connectivity, research and education networks, open access to publications, professional geoscientific bodies.

Review: All contributed abstracts will be reviewed by the convenors.

Options: All contributed abstracts may be presented as posters. The convenors will invite selected papers for oral presentations.

Organiser: IUGG
Co-sponsors: IACS, IAG, IAGA, IAHS, IAMAS, IAPSO, IASPEI, and IAVCEI
Lead Convenors: Harsh Gupta (India) and László Szarka (Hungary)

Scope: Earth and space sciences have played an increasingly important role in the past few decades in the pursuit of knowledge and understanding of our planet and its environment. This development addresses the challenging endeavor to enrich human lives with the bounties of Nature as well as to preserve the planet for generations to come. Early career scientists have an extremely important role to play. They are the key players for the future development of Earth Sciences. At this Union Symposium, speakers (up to 40 years) from different geoscientific research disciplines will share their experience, expectations, successes, and concerns. We expect that the symposium's presentations will address the topic of what should be done in IUGG and its Associations for enhancing the role of Earth and space sciences in the service of mankind.

This symposium is under active development.

Organiser: IACS
Co-sponsors: IAMAS, IAHS(ICSIH)
Lead Convenors: Michael Lehning (Switzerland), Marc Parlange (Switzerland), Pierre Etchevers (France), Eric Brun (France)
Co-Convenors: Samuel Morin (France)

Scope:  Mass balance of Alpine glaciers, snow water storage in the mountains providing water to arid areas and local microclimate are only a few examples why snow – atmosphere interactions in mountains need to be understood. Snow deposition in mountains is governed by precipitation gradients across mountain ranges, preferential deposition caused by local flow – precipitation interactions and redistribution of snow via saltation and suspension. Snow ablation depends heavily on the local energy balance with spatially varying radiation and turbulent fluxes. In complex terrain, shortwave radiation varies because of shadowing and reflections, longwave radiation varies because of varying emissions from snow, rock, soil or vegetation and turbulent fluxes vary because of differences in surface properties as well as varying wind speeds. Inversely, the presence or partial presence of a snow cover alters the forcing of the land surface on the atmosphere. In order to answer the question “how much snow is there on the mountain, where, when and why” and to make assessments of current and future snow cover, these interactions need to be understood quantitatively. This session invites contributions on the subject from atmospheric scientists, hydrologists and snow scientists.

Keywords: snow, atmosphere, energy balance, mass balance,  mountain regions

Review: All contributed abstracts will be reviewed by the Convenors.

Options: Accepted abstracts will be presented as either oral or posters as determined by the convenors. Tentative list of invited speakers

Organisers: IAMAS (ICDM, ICMA), IAPSO, IAHS, IAGA, IACS
Lead Convenor: William Lahoz (Norway)
Co-convenors: Craig Bishop (United States of America), Mu Mu (China), Michele Rienecker (United States of America), Jeffrey Walker (Australia), Tomoko Matsuo (United States of America), Ian Fenty (United States of America)
           
Scope: The session will provide a forum for presentation and discussion of the latest research in data assimilation and ensemble forecasting. The effectiveness of data assimilation and ensemble forecasting is inextricably linked to our ability to estimate the distribution of truth given limited information. Given imperfect and sparse observations together with an imperfect forecasting system, data assimilation focuses on estimating the distribution of current and past states while ensemble forecasting strives for the distribution of future states. Data assimilation schemes need an estimate of the distribution of truth given a short term forecast – a key objective of ensemble forecasting. The intertwining of the aims of data assimilation and ensemble forecasting makes it likely that data assimilation experts can help ensemble forecasting experts and vice-versa. We are calling for presentations of outstanding research in data assimilation and ensemble forecasting. Particular data assimilation topics include:

• Advanced assimilation methods, including hybrid variational and ensemble-based approaches, weak constraint 4D-VAR and model error estimation;
• Improved use of observations: observing system experiments and observing system simulation experiments, adaptive observing methods, calculation of observation sensitivities;
• Assimilation of data from new satellite instruments, such as COSMIC, CloudSat, IASI, SMOS, Aquarius and ADM-Aeolus;
• Space Weather, including applications to the heliosphere, the magnetosphere, and the ionosphere-thermosphere system;
• Polar assimilation: exploiting the considerable data collected during the IPY and subsequently via the Arctic Observing Network.

Contributions on ensemble forecasting for short, medium, seasonal and climate time scales are all welcome. Specific sub-topics include:

• improved methods for initializing ensemble forecasts,
• estimation and representation of model error, and
• ensemble post-processing to optimize the value of probabilistic forecasts to decision makers.

Keywords:  observations, satellite data, advanced methods, decision makers

Review: All contributed abstracts will be reviewed by the convenors

Options: Accepted abstracts will be presented as either oral or posters as determined by the convenors.

Invited Speakers: Eugenia Kalnay (USA), Vincent-Henri Peuch (France)/Johannes Orphal (Germany), Meng Zhiyong (China), Takemasa Miyoshi (USA), Gabrielle DeLannoy (USA), Peter Oke (Australia), Attila Komjathy (USA), Mark Buehner (Canada)

Organsiers: IAMAS (ICCL, ICDM), IAHS
Lead Convenors: Xuebin Zhang (Canada), Richard Swinbank (United Kingdom), Ronald Stewart (Canada)
Co-convenors:  Lisa Alexander (Australia), Istvan Szunyogh (United States of America), Jun Xia (China), Richard Grotjahn (United States of America), Olga Zolina (Germany), Siegfried Schubert (United States of America)

Scope: Extremes are an inherent aspect of the climate system. Such extremes are of different spatial and temporal scales, including for example, tornados, heavy precipitation and flooding, ice storms, tropical and extratropical cyclones, storm surges, heat and cold waves, drought as well as related phenomena. Many of these extremes may be compound events, resulting from several factors. This symposium covers a wide range of topics related to high-impact weather and extreme climate events, from both short-term weather forecast and long-term climate change perspectives.

One focus is on the dynamics and predictability of extreme climate and weather events and improving forecasts of high-impact weather in the current climate. This paradigm is addressed by WWRP/THORPEX - an international research programme to accelerate improvements in the prediction of high-impact weather on short- to medium-range timescales. Scientific studies based on THORPEX field campaigns (such as T-PARC or T-NAWDEX) or related research projects will be particularly welcome.

Another focus follows from the concern that a change in the climate, especially an accelerating water cycle, may lead to more such extreme events. The ensuing impacts depend more on the changes in extremes than on changes in the mean state of the climate. This is addressed, for example, by various WCRP projects (e.g. CLIVAR, GEWEX and CliC). Presentations are requested on a range of issues within this topic area including the global distribution of weather and climate extremes; trends in frequencies and intensities of extremes; development of new tools and methods for the quantitative analysis of extremes; understanding the mechanisms responsible for the formation and evolution of extremes; as well as projections of extremes and associated uncertainties in the future climate.

Keywords:  Seamless prediction, WCRP, WWRP, THORPEX

Review: All contributed abstracts will be reviewed by the convenors

Options: Accepted abstracts will be presented as either oral or posters as determined by the convenors.

Organisers: IAMAS (ICCL,ICDM), IAPSO, IACS, IAHS,GEWEX, CLIVAR
Lead Convenors: Jianping Li (China), John McBride (Australia)
Co-convenors: Bin Wang (United States of America), Jun Matsumoto (Japan), Harry Hendon (Australia), E. Hugo Berbery (United States of America), Richard Grotjahn (United States of America), Michael Montgomery (United States of America), Roger K. Smith (Germany), Masato Sugi (Japan), Georg Kaser (Austria), David S. Nolan (United States of America)
                       
Scope: This is a wide-ranging symposium covering many aspects of tropical weather and climate, but focusing primarily on monsoons and tropical cyclones, which affect the lives of billions of people. It is of great importance to understand the dynamics of monsoons and tropical cyclones, to predict them and project future changes in their nature associated with global warming. This symposium invites contributions regarding observational, diagnostic, theoretical and modeling studies of the nature, variability and mechanisms of monsoons, tropical cyclones and other tropical phenomena.  Presentations about the impact of climate change on tropical circulations are particularly welcome.

The symposium will be focused on the following themes:

• Theme 1.  Monsoon nature and mechanisms of monsoon variability. Monsoons are fundamental regulators of the earth’s energy budget and water cycle, impacting people across Southern Asia and other tropical and subtropical regions around the globe.  This part of the symposium focuses on the nature and mechanisms of monsoon variability at intraseasonal, interannual to millennial timescales; linkages between monsoon and the principal modes of climate variability; air-sea-land interaction within the global monsoon system; monsoon simulation, predictability, prediction and projection. Presentations are also invited on the latest results from monsoon experiments such as the AMY, SCSMEX, MAHASRI, GAME, NAME, MESA and AMMA, etc.
• Theme 2. Tropical cyclones. Tropical cyclones are the most destructive weather systems on the planet. We do not yet fully understand the processes that determine their development and movement to the extent that their properties can be forecasted with precision over a time scale of several days. Research papers are solicited on all aspects of tropical cyclones, especially those concerned with the fundamental dynamical and thermodynamical processes involved as well as the genesis, intensification, movement, and impacts.
• Theme 3.  Tropical circulations. This part of the symposium concerns the diverse range of tropical circulations, including equatorial waves, organized tropical convection, and tropical intraseasonal and inter-annual variability. The symposium will cover the Madden-Julian Oscillation, El Nino Southern Oscillation, the Walker and Hadley Circulations, and their interaction with monsoons and tropical cyclones.  Contributions on the diverse linkages between the tropics, subtropics and midlatitudes are also invited.  We seek to advance and connect understanding in these areas by bringing together diagnostic, theoretical, idealised and realistic simulation, prediction and model intercomparison approaches.

Keywords: Monsoon, Tropical cyclones, tropical circulations, ENSO

Review: All contributed abstracts will be reviewed by the convenors

Options: Accepted abstracts will be presented as either oral or posters as determined by the convenors.

Invited Speakers: Alice Grimm (Brazil); Tetsuzo Yasunari, Masato Sugi (Japan); Guoxiong Wu, Dunxin Hu, Ronghui Huang, Huang-Hsiung Hsu[Taipei], Johnny Chan [HongKong] (China); Kenneth Sperber, Bin Wang, Michael Montgomery, Dave Raymond, David Nolan, June-yi Lee, Richard Grotjahn, Eric D. Maloney, Chidong Zhang, Kerry Cooke, C.P. Chang (USA); Andy Turner (UK); Roger K. Smith (Germany); John McBride, Jeff Kepert, Matthew Wheeler, Harry Hendon, Wenju Cai (Australia); Thomas Moelg (Austria); Patrick Wagnon (France)

Organisers: IAMAS(ICCP), IAHS
Lead Convenor: Daniel Schertzer (France)
Co-convenors:  Sandra Yuter (United States of America), Alan Seed (Australia)

Scope: The extreme variability of precipitation over a wide range of space-time scales remains a challenging research domain for both the observation and modelling domains. Since this variability is rather discrete in time and discontinuous in space, methods developed for more continuous variables such as velocity and pressure are often not adequate for precipitation. A better understanding and representation of the spatial and temporal structure of rainfall is therefore an indispensable step when designing a rain gauge network, gauge data quality checking and removing artifacts, quantifying and modeling the error structure for radar rainfall, estimating the predictability limits as a function of scale and lead time and developing algorithms for very short term precipitation forecasts (e.g. some form of advection forecast).

This joint IAHS-IAMAS workshop will be a forum to discuss observed precipitation from long-records and new observational in-situ networks and remote sensing data sets. Particular attention will be paid to characterization and methodologies related to extreme events, non-stationarities, multiplicity of scales, effective space-time resolution, quantification of uncertainties and empirical descriptions that can be incorporated into downscaling and numerical model frameworks.

Keywords: precipitation, long records, extreme events, non-stationarities, multiplicity of scales, effective space-time resolution, uncertainty quantification, empirical descriptions, downscaling and numerical models

Review: All contributed abstracts will be reviewed by the convenors

Options: Accepted abstracts will be presented as either oral or posters as determined by the convenors.

Confirmed invited speakers: Andras Bardossy (U. Stutgart), Ana Barors (Duke U.), S. Lovejoy (McGill U.)