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AboutHydrology
My reflections and notes about hydrology and being a hydrologist in academia. The daily evolution of my work. Especially for my students, but also for anyone with the patience to read them.
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
Two possibile positions, if the right people show up
Monday, October 14, 2024
Let's start with Permafrost and Freezing soil ! A selection of readings for beginners compiled by John Mohd Wani
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
27. Permafrost is warming at a global scale
28. The new database of the Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost (GTN-P)
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.
Monday, September 30, 2024
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
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.