Call for Special Sessions

 In CWRA2025 News, Program

The CWRA 2025 National Conference is accepting proposals for Special Sessions under the theme of Living Between Waters – Connecting Water and Resilience

Special Sessions are expected to focus on topics related to water sharing across multiple jurisdictions and watersheds, creating new partnerships to manage water resources, the decision-making and stewardship of and by Indigenous communities, and creating resilience for our shared water future.

Potential topic areas that will be explored during special sessions include: 

  1. Exploring opportunities to connect science and engineering with traditional ecological and Indigenous knowledge; 
  2. Water management across the continuum from headwaters to deltas (summit to sea);
  3. Integrated assessment of surface water & groundwater interactions across a myriad of spatial scales;
  4. Planning for environmental flow needs in streams and water bodies; 
  5. Flood mapping and forecasting for resilience; 
  6. Protecting aquatic species, ecology and traditional uses of water bodies;
  7. Nature-based solutions for drainage, flooding, restoration and conservation; 
  8. Adapting & upgrading water infrastructure due to aging infrastructure and climate change; 
  9. Developing and implementing hydrological prediction systems across Canada;
  10. Understanding the impacts of climate change on drinking water, agriculture, forestry, mining and industry across Canada; 
  11. Collaborative approaches for incorporating new infrastructure and technology to create resilience to climate change;
  12. Developing collaborative approaches for transboundary water governance & water justice for a more resilient water future. 

Proposals for special sessions should be provided to CWRA2025@cwra.org by November 12th, 2024. The proposals should include a brief (one paragraph) description of the session and a list of potential or suggested speakers. The organizers of Special Sessions will be responsible for encouraging colleagues to submit abstracts to the session, deciding which speakers are assigned an oral presentation or a poster, and chairing the session at the conference.

If your proposal is successful, your Special Session will be included in the Call for Presentations anticipated at the end of November 2024. Once abstracts are closed (approximately the last week of January or first week of February), we would then ask you to review the submissions associated with your Special Session, and select speakers. The 2025 National Conference team will assist with reviewing abstracts and making programming decisions.