Two possibile positions, if the right people show up

We are once again looking for exceptional individuals to join our team for PhD (3 years) or postdoc (2 years) positions.

Position 1: GEOframe-NewAGE System Application

This role focuses on the implementation and application of the GEOframe-NewAGE system to the Po River Basin. You will assist the team in finalizing the calibration and analysis of the hydrology of the Po catchment for the period 1990-1991, with exciting outcomes expected in climatology, drought studies, and hydroinformatics applications.

Position 2: Earth Observations and GEOSPACE System Development

This position involves the integration of Earth Observations into the GEOSPACE system, with further development and applications in both the Po River Basin and the Val di Non, Noce River catchment. The objective is to advance high-resolution remote sensing and hydrological modeling integration, as well as to enhance our land-surface modeling capabilities.

We encourage interested candidates to explore my blog, where you’ll find detailed information about our working methods, the tools we use, and the philosophy we follow. An insightful candidate will recognize how well we might work together by reviewing the contents they find.

If you’re interested, please reach out to us at abouthydrology@gmail.com.

Let's start with Permafrost and Freezing soil ! A selection of readings for beginners compiled by John Mohd Wani

It looks like we have a new students willing to work on Permafrost and Freezing Soil. So I asked to John Mohd Wani to gather a few introductory readings. Please find below the list, for others who would start to learn about this fascinating topic.

1. Recent advances in permafrost modelling
2. Permafrost distribution in the European Alps: calculation and evaluation of an index map and summary statistics
3. A statistical approach to modelling permafrost distribution in the European Alps or similar mountain ranges
4. GlobSim (v1.0): deriving meteorological time series for point locations from multiple global reanalyses
5. A robust and energy-conserving model of freezing variably-saturated soil
6. GEOtop 2.0: simulating the combined energy and water balance at and below the land surface accounting for soil freezing, snow cover and terrain effects
7. Statistical modelling of mountain permafrost distribution: local calibration and incorporation of remotely sensed data
8. Sensitivities and uncertainties of modeled ground temperatures in mountain environments
9. Mountain permafrost: development and challenges of a young research field
10. Permafrost and climate in Europe: Monitoring and modelling thermal, geomorphological and geotechnical responses
11. Transient thermal effects in Alpine permafrost
12. A method for solving heat transfer with phase change in ice or soil that allows for large time steps while guaranteeing energy conservation
13. Implementing the Water, HEat and Transport model in GEOframe (WHETGEO-1D v.1.0): algorithms, informatics, design patterns, open science features, and 1D deployment
14. Theoretical and numerical tools for studying the Critical Zone from plot to catchments
15. Theoretical progress freezing-thawing processes study
16. A sensitivity study of factors influencing warm/thin permafrost in the Swiss Alps
17. Application of Satellite Remote Sensing Techniques to Frozen Ground Studies
18. Derivation and analysis of a high-resolution estimate of global permafrost zonation
19. How Much of the Earth's Surface is Underlain by Permafrost?
20. Influence of snow cover on ground surface temperature in the zone of sporadic permafrost, Tatra Mountains, Poland and Slovakia
21. Influence of the seasonal snow cover on the ground thermal regime: An overview
22. Mapping and modelling the occurrence and distribution of mountain permafrost
23. Northern Hemisphere permafrost map based on TTOP modelling for 2000–2016 at 1 km2 scale
24. Numerical simulations of the influence of the seasonal snow cover on the occurrence of permafrost at high latitudes
25. Permafrost distribution modelling in the semi-arid Chilean Andes

26. The changing thermal state of permafrost
27. Permafrost is warming at a global scale
28. The new database of the Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost (GTN-P)

29. Thermal state of permafrost and active layer in Central Asia during the international polar year

30. Twenty years of European mountain permafrost dynamics—the PACE legacy

Additionally, you can find well-documented information on the long-term state and changes of mountain permafrost in the Swiss Alps through the Swiss Permafrost Monitoring Network (PERMOS). Also, they have documented and compiled best practice recommendations for the long-term measurement of permafrost temperatures.

Finally the permafrost Glossary (old) that will give you the definitions of the permafrost related terms.

Don't forget to keep an eye on the International Permafrost Association (IPA) website for events and other stuff related to permafrost. Also subscribe to the Permafrost Young Researcher's Network (PYRN), that promotes the future generation of permafrost researchers under the patronage of IPA.

Rules of the (ECHO) house (or what the Ph.D.s and postdoc should do) by Andrea Rinaldo

 

The Rivers' Speech

Andrea Rinaldo is retiring. So young and strong I would say, he is only seventy  now  (seventy is the new forty, at least for him) and he will certainly continue to produce. Therefore the University of Padova is celebrating him on Friday, September 27 afternoon. He will talk about University and eventually some of his direct students, part of a family which now has grew wide and international, were asked to highlight for the general audience (in Italian) Andrea's research.  

My topic was, quite obviously, geomorphology and river networks. Clicking below the figure you can find what I prepared in Italian (pre-recorded video here). Below The  English version is here (pre-recorded video here). It is a short talk (8 minutes or so, but I hope that you like it)

A new way of discussing on the web with a distributed responsability

As many of you may know, recently, Jan Seibert issued an appeal to young hydrological researchers, advising caution when accepting invitations to become editors for review issues. In the past, these invitations were broadly distributed, but the results were often disappointing, leading to wasted time and effort. Demetris Koutsoyiannis, among others, raised opposing viewpoints, shifting the focus to the broader issues within scientific publishing and the influence large publishers can exert on the development of science.

This appeal was somewhat unusual for the AboutHydrology mailing list, which typically serves as an announcement platform, not a forum for discussion. Nevertheless, the topic quickly gained traction (considering the size of the community), with several prominent scientists contributing to the conversation. I eventually had to close the discussion within a day to prevent it from becoming overly repetitive. Despite its brevity, the conversation provided a good overview of the relevant perspectives.

### Key Takeaways:

1. Moderating a discussion list is surprisingly overwhelming.

2. A mailing list isn't the ideal platform for synthesizing differing opinions, but it can at least offer a quick overview of diverse perspectives on a given topic.

3. After a certain point, even well-informed and motivated contributions stop adding significant value.

4. Finding a suitable platform for discussion is essential.

5. A mailing list, despite its origins in fostering debate (like the old listserv model), is not the right tool for this anymore. Today, there are better alternatives.

Moderating such discussions is demanding, and moderators may not always have a vested interest in the topic. My proposed solution is a more distributed approach, where people can raise a question in a specialized application and share a link for feedback, allowing engagement without requiring users to join the application itself. The person who raises the question would be responsible for moderating that particular thread.

The ideal platform for AboutHydrology would be a tool designed for question pooling—something like an evolved version of *Klicker*, developed by the University of Zurich, where Jan works. *Klicker* allows questions to be posed and moderated, and users can respond via a shared link. This setup would allow the questioner to create a poll, share it on AboutHydrology, and gather feedback. At the end of the process, a report summarizing the responses could be distributed via the mailing list. While I have used the older version of *Klicker* with my students, I’m not yet proficient with the latest version.

Currently, one limitation of *Klicker* is that it doesn't seem to support direct interaction between users. However, here’s an example link to illustrate how it could work: [Jan’s opinion](https://pwa.klicker.uzh.ch/session/daf1a9ec-f26e-4ff4-ba79-30a8dd7b8cb6).

If anyone on the list knows of an alternative platform that might better suit this purpose, I’d appreciate recommendations and introductions to such tools.

A new tool for correcting the spatial and temporal pattern of global precipitation products across mountainous terrain: precipitation and hydrological analysis

 This is a place holder

Multi-model hydrological reference dataset over continental Europe and an African basin

Although Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) have been widely adopted as important metrics for guiding scientific and policy decisions, the Earth Observation (EO) and Land Surface and Hydrologic Model (LSM/HM) communities have yet to treat terrestrial ECVs in an integrated manner. To develop consistent terrestrial ECVs at regional and continental scales, greater collaboration between EO and LSM/HM communities is needed. An essential first step is assessing the LSM/HM simulation uncertainty. To that end, we introduce a new hydrological reference dataset that comprises a range of 19 existing LSM/HM simulations that represent the current state-of-the-art of our LSM/HMs. Simulations are provided on a daily time step, covering Europe, notably the Rhine and Po river basins, alongside the Tugela river basin in Africa, and are uniformly formatted to allow comparisons across simulations. Furthermore, simulations are comprehensively evaluated with discharge, evapotranspiration, soil moisture and total water storage anomaly observations. Our dataset provides valuable information to support policy development and serves as a benchmark for generating consistent terrestrial ECVs through the integration of EO products.

The paper was just accepted on Scientific Data ans the preprint can be found clicking on the Figure above.