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In this Issue:
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From the Section Secretary and President: Get Global
- Sister Organization: The Korea Water Resources Association
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Fellow Speaks: Vijay Singh
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Technical Committee Update: Uncertainty
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Topical: Information Theory: Relevance to Hydrology?
- Information, Conferences and Links
- Stuff from the President's desk (opportunities for students, etc.)
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Go Global!
Jointly - Section Secretary Jennifer Druhan and President John Selker
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The hydrology section bylaws give our raison d'être: “To initiate and participate in hydrologic and water resource research programs including those which depend upon international cooperation.” The international community is essential as we turn from local hydrology (e.g., floods) to facing climate change driven hydrological impacts on global freshwater, food and ecosystems. Complex global-scale issues call on us to consider the role of professional collaboration - local or remote. Have positioned the AGU Hydrology Section to face the challenge of constructing global community? We rightly emphasize the student and early career members, as their success is our future. But beyond the wonderful meetings and journals, what must we do to allow us to accomplish together that would be unimaginable as individuals?
International collaboration is transformative personally and in scientific discovery: The mission of the KWRA (page 2); Selker’s wanderings in Asia (June Newsletter), and Druhan’s role in France at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris. These visits are powerful cross-pollination the generation of novel transformative ideas is both accelerated and taken to a new level, benefiting from diverse perspectives and applications. The objectives of our section point to the strength we gain through international community, that we as a section value the importance of working across borders, learning from and relying on one another, shaping the future of hydrologic sciences. The AGU and the Hydrology Section are ever more focused on fomenting community and discovery through innovative global collaboration. Stretch your bubble of comfort to reach to your colleagues around the world reflecting your membership in the global community of discovery as together we address the most amazing constituent of our shared planet.
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Sister Organization: Korea Water Resource Association (KWRA)
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The narrative of the American West, symbolized by the Hoover Dam, showcases how pivotal water resource development is for overcoming challenges and achieving resilient growth—a lesson mirrored across the globe. After the Korean War concluded in 1953, South Korea transformed from one of the world's poorest countries into an economic powerhouse, ranking tenth globally. This remarkable transition was fueled by the development of multipurpose dams, which provided a bounty of water resources and electricity, propelling heavy industries forward and setting the stage for the emergence of global brands like Samsung, Hyundai, and the cultural phenomenon of K-culture.
Leading such monumental water resource development projects, pivotal for a nation's prosperity or decline, demands a confluence of vital elements. It calls for leadership of the caliber of Franklin Roosevelt, coupled with the relentless determination of a populace eager to transcend poverty, and fortified by advanced scientific knowledge and engineering expertise essential for efficient water resource development. The Korea Water Resources Association (KWRA) embodies a collective of professionals dedicated to this narrative of growth and innovation in South Korea's water resource management.
Founded in 1967, KWRA is a premier non-profit organization committed to enhancing hydroengineering and water management practices in Korea. With a membership exceeding 4,200, encompassing practicing engineers and renowned academics, KWRA is at the forefront of promoting collaboration and pioneering advancements in water resources.
Our mission is unequivocal: to foster academic and public welfare projects concerning Earth's waters. KWRA endeavors to maintain a harmonious balance between structural and non-structural water management strategies, aiming for the judicious and fair use of this invaluable resource.
KWRA's interests span vital areas such as securing ample water resources to combat scarcity, enacting comprehensive water management strategies, and rejuvenating aquatic ecosystems. We are dedicated to developing versatile strategies and methodologies for water resource prediction and management, encouraging the exchange of insights on integrated watershed management, and advocating for state-of-the-art scientific approaches to water resource stewardship.
As an esteemed affiliate of the World Water Council and the United Nations' International Hydrological Programme (IHP), KWRA actively engages with global partners to propel forward water engineering technologies. These international collaborations are instrumental in leading technological breakthroughs and addressing worldwide water challenges.
Beyond our global contributions, KWRA plays a critical role in influencing governmental policy and advancing scientific understanding of Earth's water resources. By leveraging our collective expertise, we contribute significantly to national well-being and technological progress in water resource management.
We eagerly anticipate the support and participation from the AGU.
Sangho Lee, KWRA President
The KWRA is excited to announce our upcoming
annual conference,
8-10 May on the beautiful island of Jeju, South Korea. A pivotal gathering of international researchers, scholars, and professionals to showcase their work, engage in insightful discussions, and build valuable international connections within the community of water science and engineering. With diverse sessions, keynote speakers, and interactive workshops, the conference promises to be a dynamic and enriching experience. One thousand attendees will deliver 600 papers. Professor Taikan Oki will deliver a keynote address about global hydrology, promising to add a profound depth to our collective understanding and discussion.
Application Deadline: Friday 12 April 2024
Apply here:
https://forms.gle/WPBMgewFyuhqSxgZA
President’s Note: Each month we highlight one of our Global Sister Organizations in a one-page contribution to help build bridges across many parallel activities.
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Fellow Awardee Speaks: Vijay Singh
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What can I share from my experience in becoming an academic? A multitude of factors have shaped my career. Besides the key support from family, friends, and co-workers, foremost was hard work, combining single-minded dedication with disciplined time management. This was all in a context of a professional community of collaboration, knowledge sharing, patience and teamwork.
Hard work is the key to achieve anything worthwhile in life and people know that there is no substitute for it, yet not everybody is hardworking. The AGU members I know are highly intelligent and have a passion for doing quality work. They are capable of achieving anything in their sights, provided they put in enough hours on a consistent basis with discipline and dedication. To be productive in research time management is essential. Time is the only thing on the Earth that is constant for everybody. In academia, expectations of faculty members have increased exponentially during the past three to four decades. This is equally true of those working in research organizations, such as USGS, USDA-ARS, USBR, USACE, etc. More expectations mean more demands on time. It is difficult to be productive if one works only during the regular 8 to 5 hours on Mondays through Fridays. This is because a sizable portion of the day is spent on a multitude of unnecessary activities. To stay productive demands that they manage their time strategically.
Our ability to solve complex problems depends on working together, listening to one another, respecting each other and sharing knowledge. Problems are multidimensional and their solution requires knowledge of many fields beyond geophysics and engineering. This is made possible by collaborating with people specializing in different fields. I have learnt much from my physics and math collaborators. Collaboration expands one’s knowledge base by learning new techniques but also one learns the art of communicating with specialists of different fields. This requires patience, the art of give and take, respect for others, humility and a team spirit. Collaborations are successful when one follows the doctrine of “giving more and expecting less.”
An important point is to recognize that problems of tomorrow may be quite different from problems of today and to tackle problems of tomorrow may require different sets of techniques. We therefore must think outside of the box, always striving to broaden our knowledge. Technology in AI is growing at a pace difficult to manage, impacting our professional and daily lives. The earlier we integrate it with our professional activities the better off we will be.
Sharing of knowledge and data has also been fundamental. In Indian (Sanatan) culture, knowledge has long been worshipped as the supreme wealth, for it is the only wealth that defies the laws of mathematics--it multiplies upon division, it adds upon subtraction, it becomes lighter upon growth and it remains immune to stealing and control. Therefore, it should be shared freely for the benefit of profession and humanity and human welfare.
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Technical Committee Focus: Uncertainty
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Hydrologic uncertainty, the variability and unpredictability inherent in hydrological processes, remains one of the most complex areas of hydrologic research as it requires a diverse and multi-disciplinary perspective to truly identify uncertainty. Our committee brings together field hydrologists, data scientists, computer scientists, applied statisticians, and policy makers, with a suite of skills and a shared goal of improving our characterization and communication of uncertainty across a plethora of applications.
Recently, we refreshed our mission statement to better reflect our purpose and support a plan to build the visibility and connectedness of our network. "We aim to cultivate a community that promotes and advances research in hydrologic uncertainty and related fields," states the refreshed purpose statement. Our goal is advancing the understanding, recognition, and management of uncertainty in hydrology (and related sciences) through coordinating activities at AGU.
In line with this renewed purpose, the committee has devised a strategic plan for the coming years, focusing on three pillars: (1) promoting the discipline, (2) nurturing the next generation of scientists, and (3) amplifying the visibility of the committee's endeavors. Recent activities that we are proud of include our “Uncertainty Paper of the Week” which draws attention to most recent and impactful publications in the field. In line with our strategic plan, priority in selecting these papers is given to Early Career scientists. The papers with the most “likes” will be chosen to receive an award every year which will be announced during the AGU Fall Meeting.
Our goal is not only to deepen our understanding of hydrologic uncertainty but also to translate our findings into actionable insights for those on the front lines of water management. From specialized conference sessions to promoting publications and networking events at AGU, we've been facilitating dialogue and collaboration among members of the committee and the broader uncertainty community. But we are keen to broaden our network. If you're passionate about hydrology, uncertainty, and making a difference in water management, we invite you to join us at our AGU sessions, on X @AGU_HU and LinkedIn, and stay tuned for upcoming events and opportunities to engage with our vibrant community!
Example of addressing uncertainty in hydrology (Kavetski, D. (2018). Parameter Estimation and Predictive Uncertainty Quantification in Hydrological Modelling. In: Duan, Q., Pappenberger, F., Thielen, J., Wood, A., Cloke, H., Schaake, J. (eds) Handbook of Hydrometeorological Ensemble Forecasting. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40457-3_25-1
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"Information Theory:" Relevance to Hydrology?
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As a hydrologist, you may have heard people mention something called
“Information Theory” and be wondering what it is and how it might be relevant to
“science”, and more specifically
“hydrologic science”. After all, you may be familiar with the (i) principles governing the behaviors of hydrologic systems, (ii) various kinds of approaches to
modeling them, (iii) use of statistical methods to estimate quantities and deal with uncertainties, and even perhaps the (iv) use of machine learning to investigate patterns hidden in the data and exploit these to make better predictions/decisions. So, why should you care about
“Information Theory”, could it (in any way) contribute to a better understanding of the natural world, and could it help to improve our ability to make better decisions?
It was precisely such questions that motivated a transdisciplinary group of 37 scientists (
photo) to converge on the
“Schneefernerhaus” at the Zugspitze (the highest place in Germany, accessible primarily by cable car; during a week in September 2023. Notably, the workshop organizers and participants came from all career stages (students and post-docs to grey-hairs), and a wide variety of disciplines (
diagram), including various geosciences, mathematics, physics, computer science, machine learning, and even psychology.
What facilitated ease of communication across these diverse backgrounds was that “
Information Theory” provides a consistent framework and language for discussing how “
theory-based-knowledge” and “
data-based-information” can be rigorously combined to advance understanding, prediction, and reasoning.
It starts with the recognition that “
Information” is the property of
Data or
Theory (including principles, assumptions, physical or conceptual constraints, etc.) that, when processed/assimilated, results in a change in our uncertainty about the state of the world.
Claude Shannon famously showed that the “
amount” of Information in some event (Data) can be quantified in terms of how “
Surprising” the occurrence of that event is, given our prior state of knowledge; this forms the basis of so-called “
Shannon Information Theory”. On the other hand, “
Algorithmic Information Theory” tells us that the amount of Information provided a “
Model” (either a computational implementation of Theory, or a compressed representation of Data) can be quantified in terms of its “Kolmogorov Complexity”, also known as its “
Description Length”. Importantly, both Surprise and Complexity can be expressed using a common quantitative basis (number of “
bits”).
One can, therefore, characterize the pursuit of “
Science” as seeking a Representation (explanation of the world) that simultaneously has the shortest Description Length (is parsimonious) and results in the smallest amount of Surprise, especially when tested on new events (Generalization Ability). What interested the workshop participants is that Information Theory seems to provide a robust and coherent framework for the development of models and methods in support of improved understanding, reasoning, and prediction (perhaps even discovery), leading ultimately to optimal decision making.
If any of this intrigues you, an Information Theory in the Geosciences (ITGS) reading and discussion group meets online every three weeks (
www.youtube.com/@informationtheoryinthegeos8841); to be added to the mailing list, please contact the authors. We periodically organize workshops and summer schools (see
https://geoinfotheory.org) to promote a dynamic exchange of concepts and ideas, and seek to build scientific and educational capacity by fostering a strong and collaborative community.
 Acknowledgement: The workshop was hosted by the
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and supported by a grant from the
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).
Contributed by Hoshin Gupta, Uwe Ehret, Maoya Bassiouni, Marvin Höge, Andrew Bennett, Cristina Prieto, Praveen Kumar
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Stuff from the President's Desk...
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1. Comment on AGU Position statements
Among the many activities of the AGU, taking positions on issues of social relevance for which the membership of the AGU has special scientific credibility is one of the more quiet, but controversial, undertakings. These must be “renewed” each 5 years, so it is time to undertake this process for several previously approved statements. Until 30 April you may put your observations forward on
three AGU Position Statements addressing:
- climate change,
- science communication, and
- data.
Please take the time to submit your comments to help shape the future of the Earth and space sciences.
2. $2000 Grants for Students Available
Funded by The Hydrology Section Bridges program! Applications due 6 May 2024 and will be granted by 15 May (in case people want to attend the WaterSciCon24).
The application process will require the submission of the following materials emailed directly to the Section president in a zip file:
Applicant’s Details:
- Institution
- Education level (undergrad, masters, grad) + Year
- Major
- Other educational interests
- CV
Short (2 pg) personal statement indicating:
- Demonstrated interest in Hydrological Sciences either through academic or other personal experiences and career goals.
- Statement on need and grant activity. What will you use the funding for (examples: meeting attendance and travel, workshops, or visits to labs and other educational and career networking opportunities).
- Budget for the activity and any additional funding you have in place to supplement the grant. Attest to the fact that this activity would not be possible without the grant requested.
- What do you hope to gain from the experience funded by the grant?
- Two one-page letters of recommendation from professional or academic references
3. The Bridges to the Future Program
Seeks more personal stories to be posted in remembrance of the Bridges heroes. Do you have stories about Tom Meixner, Jim Shuttleworth, Ignacio Rodrigues-Iturbe, Don Neilson or David Woolhiser? For an example, see my tribute to Ignacio. These are permanent elements of this history where we seek to add muti-dimensional perspectives to these pivotal people from our community. Send your submissions to [email protected]. Don’t forget that we are open to new Heroes to be included, and that the program needs donations to fund the student grants designed to fulfil the mission of opening the section to students who might otherwise not think of pursuing a career in Hydrology.
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AGU is a global community supporting more than half a million advocates and professionals in the Earth and space sciences.
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