Conference Workshops

Workshops will be held on Sunday, 5 June, 2021, the day before the start of the conference – unless otherwise specified. A net-zero cost (to CWRA) model is used for all workshops; organizers will charge participants a fee to cover any costs related to running the workshop.

In conjunction with the 2022 Annual CWRA Conference, the following are technical workshops that complement the general scope of our conference theme: Valuing Shared Waters.

Workshops will be cancelled if registration is lower than necessary to meet costs by May 13, 2022. Any registration fees will be refunded in full, if the workshop is cancelled by the conference organizers.

CSHS Workshop: R for hydrologists

This workshop will show hydrologists and other professionals how to be more productive in their work using the R language. The workshop will be hands-on (participants will require a laptop) and will cater to a wide variety of skill/experience levels. Participants will learn how to use R for common hydrological tasks and will be introduced to a variety of packages that are useful for Canadian hydrologists, including the new CSHShydRology package.

Workshop facilitators:

Kevin Shook, University of Saskatchewan

Paul Whitfield, University of Saskatchewan

Dan Moore, UBC

Workshop Details:

Date = Sunday June 5th

Cost = $75.00

Time = 9:00 am – 4:00 pm

Location = Canmore Coast Hotel – Room TBD

Meals = 2 coffee breaks, no lunch will be provided

CANCID – Irrigation Design Workshop

One-day event to provide a comprehensive understanding of agronomic, technical, legislative considerations of designing irrigation infrastructure plans. Open to all municipal or drinking water engineering professionals & students who need a better understanding of the difference between municipal and rural irrigation projects, as well as agricultural engineers who need a refresher on water conveyance and irrigation engineering.

During the day, the following topics will be covered:

1. Overview of irrigation methods & irrigation water management strategies used in Canada
2. Irrigation system design at the field scale
3. Irrigation districts and water delivery
4. Operation of reservoirs, canals, and pipelines
5. Process for new irrigation infrastructure projects.
6. Best practices from the field: Alberta irrigation industry standards.

Workshop Details:

Date = Thursday June 9th

Cost = $75.00

Time = 9:00 am – 4:00 pm

Location = Canmore Coast Hotel – Room TBD

Meals = 2 coffee breaks, no lunch will be provided

Canadian Hydrological Forecasting System

Host: Jorge Luis Sanchez Lozano

A workshop in which people support and build knowledge and expertise around Developing and implementing a hydrological prediction system across Canada. The GEOGloWS ECMWF Streamflow Services (GESS) is a Global Hydrological Prediction System that is available to almost every river in the world. This model offers a REST API service that allows customization to regional and national scales. The first part of the workshop will focus on the use of the GESS rest API in Canada (1.5 hours). The second part of the workshop will be combining the GESS results and the hydrological observed data to produce a national streamflow forecasting service, a national water level streamflow service, and an evaluation of the performance of the GESS model results (3.0 hours). Additionally, we have developed a set of web applications that will help in the managing of the Canadian hydrometeorological data. We plan to do some demonstrations of the use of these applications. The applications could include the Water Data Explorer (visualization and exploration of hydrometeorological stations metadata and time series), Met Data Explorer (visualization and exploration of meteorological raster information), grace, and groundwater level mapping tool (visualization and raster groundwater raster and vector information, respectively) (1.5 hours).

Summary of the workshop:

1. Use of the GEOGloWS ECMWF Streamflow Services (1.5 hours)
2. Combining the GEOGloWS ECMWF Streamflow Services results and the hydrological observed data in Canada (3.0 hours)
   1. National Streamflow Forecasting Service (45 minutes)
   2. National Water Level Streamflow Service (45 minutes)
   3. Evaluation of the performance of the GESS model results (1.5 hours)
3. Water Resources Web Applications demonstration (1.5 hours)

Workshop Details:

Date = Thursday June 9th

Cost = $75.00

Time = 9:00 am – 4:00 pm

Location = Canmore Coast Hotel – Room TBD

Meals = 2 coffee breaks, no lunch will be provided

Hydrological Forecasting System Development

Hosts:

Co-hosted by Deltares and the Alberta Environment and Parks’ River Forecast Centre

Flow Forecasting 2022: Delft-FEWS Canadian User Workshop

The Alberta Environment and Parks’ River Forecast Centre and Deltares are excited to co-host the Delft-FEWS Canadian User Workshop.  The workshop’s focus is to improve the connections and networks within the Canadian forecasting community and bringing research developments into operational practice. Forecaster-focused interactive sessions, presentations and an expert panel will explore current needs and create a roadmap for planned developments.  The current tentative schedule of the workshop is below, with further information coming for registered participants. Practitioners not employing Delft-FEWS are very welcome to join and contribute as well.

 Workshop Details:

Date = Thursday, June 9th

Cost = $75.00

Time = 9:00 am – 4:30 pm

Location = Canmore Coast Hotel – Room TBD

Meals = 2 coffee breaks, lunch to be provided

Flow Regatta: Spray River

Host: Derek Brzoza

NASH is pleased to announce it will be hosting a Flow Regatta Training event on the Spray River in beautiful Banff, Alberta on Saturday and Sunday, June 4th-5th, 2022. . This two-day event will include an “Introduction to Hydrometric Data Collection” workshop, a NASH-sponsored celebration for the 50th year anniversary of Marmot Creek Research Center Saturday evening in Canmore, and a Flow Regatta Sunday afternoon in Banff. The “Introduction to Hydrometric Data Collection” workshop will highlight the considerations required for a robust stream gauge installation, benchmark and datum considerations, collection of flow measurements using a variety of techniques and a classroom portion where we will QA/QC the collected data and grade the quality appropriately. The training event (flow regatta) following the data QA/QC on June 5th, focuses on the newest technologies emerging in hydrometrics and allows participants the opportunity to get hands-on training and develop their best practices. Training will be provided on:

• Salt Dilution: Around for decades, this tried and true method is easy and accurate in turbulent water with cross-channel mixing.
• ADV Gauging: The evolution of current metering, the newest meters sport automatic depth measurement, Q calculation, and uncertainty estimates.
• Transparent Head Velocity Rod: This novel technique offers a low-cost alternative to conventional current meters.
• Non Contact Measurements: Including Image Velocimetry (LSPIV, STIV, and SSIV) and Radar: Like ADCP before it, many of the world’s hydrometric agencies are investigating these non-contact, autonomous methods to capture the average surface velocity and estimate the total flow.

Flow regatta training provides an invaluable discussion forum for hydrometric data collection including; how to estimate uncertainty, choosing the best sites to measure discharge using the different methods, and developing best practices for emerging technologies. For those interested in non-contact gauging we will be further researching and providing training on the standardized alpha velocity determination plus our event sponsors will be on hand demonstrating their latest data loggers, hydrometric equipment, and telemetry options.

Participants are encouraged to bring their own instruments to measure and calculate discharge against the Water Survey of Canada rating curve on the Spray River. Participants will battle it out for top prize and bragging rights as they aim to measure, within uncertainty, the objectively determined “true” flow.

Schedule:

Part 1: $75.00 (Includes fieldwork on June 4th and data QA/QC session on June 5th)

• The “field component” (June 4th) of the workshop will be held at the Spray River in Banff from  12 pm (Noon) to 4:30 pm. The workshop will begin at noon at Bow Falls viewpoint parking lot; off River Ave in Banff.
• 
• The field component will require participants to organize their own transportation and lunch. Please also ensure you bring appropriate clothing; including waders if you have them!
• Then, on June 5th, data QA/QC will be held in Canmore in a classroom setting from 8:30 am to 11:30 am where in-hotel coffee will be provided.

Part 2: $40.00 (Includes only the flow regatta training event)

• The flow regatta training event will take place back at the Spray River from 12 pm (noon) to 4:30 pm. Packed lunches will be provided. Transportation must be organized by the participant.

50th Anniversary of Marmot Creek Research Center Celebration:

2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the Marmot Creek Research Basin so you can expect a celebration as NASH is planning a networking event on Saturday night, June 4th, at a TBD location in Canmore. Come celebrate with our event sponsors and trash talk your competition for the next day’s regatta. Awards for the top competitors in several categories to be held at NASH’s AGM on Sunday evening; location TBD.

Details from previous events can be found here:  

2019 Flow Regatta

2018 Flow Regatta

2017 Flow Regatta

Thank you to our event sponsors:

• Hoskin Scientific
• NASH
• Fathom Scientific Ltd.
• Rain to River Consulting
• Geo Scientific Ltd.
• and Water Survey of Canada

Geospatial assessment of surface water quality in a watershed region

Host: Shayan Jamil

The session will begin with an introduction of the study area including topography, geological features and water infrastructure using satellite imagery and terrain maps from google.com. Historical perspective on water quality of the region will be briefly discussed in reference to environmental impacts associated with the ecosystem. Next, the organizations working in the region for monitoring and regulating water quality will be introduced. Next, the methods used to monitor the water quality will be briefly discussed including water quality sampling, lab analysis and assessment reports in form of data files. This will be followed by the identification of the field sites that are designated for water quality assessment in the study area. The objectives of the workshop will be reviewed in reference to all the discussed information before moving to the hands-on session.

*The facilitator will share the screen for the attendees to use as a reference while following through with the workshop.

As part of the hands-on session, the attendees will be requested to access the Jupyter Notebook using an internet browser on their computers. Within the notebook, an R session will be initiated. Data will be imported to the R session. The imported data will be mapped to study the features of the watershed including the watershed boundary and water quality sampling locations. The dataset will be further explored to analyze the water quality results obtained from the watershed for the past years. The water quality results will be plotted to assess the data frequency, histogram, and standard deviations. Any outliers will be filtered out to prepare the data for geospatial interpolation. An experimental and model variogram model will be simulated as input to the kriging algorithm. The kriged values for water quality will be mapped to analyze the spatial variation in water quality within the study area. The objective and expected outcome of the workshop will be reviewed and discussed with the attendees.

Workshop Details:

Date = Sunday, June 5th

Cost = $75.00

Time = 9:00 am – 4:00 pm

Location = Canmore Coast Hotel – Room TBD

Meals = 2 coffee breaks, no lunch will be provided

The Workshop outline is provided below: