In December and February, the first-ever HS Division Campfire Events took place online!
For our premiere, we invited the 2024 Division award winners to join, present their work, and talk about their personal journeys as researchers. And in January, we took a look back at how socio-hydrology has evolved as a discipline since its inception over 10 years ago.
Let’s take a look at the first two HS Campfire Events!
What Are HS Campfire Events?
Campfire Events are one of the two main types of online events offered by EGU. The second type are webinars.
Webinars are typically recorded and then uploaded to the EGU YouTube channel. They are more formal. Only the panellists’ cameras are on, and audience members can only ask questions through the chat. The HS Division ECS, for instance, organised a webinar on how to prepare for the General Assembly in Vienna.
In contrast, Campfires are more informal events, centering around a particular theme. Usually, Divisions invite two or three speakers who are experts on a subject and give presentations in the first half of the event. The second half of Campfires is more relaxed – all participants can switch on their cameras and engage in a laid-back conversation. Around a digital campfire so to say! It’s a fantastic opportunity to get insights and advice from more senior colleagues, to do a bit of networking, and to meet international colleagues.
That said, what did the first two campfire event in the Hydrological Sciences consist of?
Talking to the 2024 Award-Winners of the Hydrological Sciences Division
For our first Division Campfire event, we invited the winners of the 2024 Henry Darcy Medal, James Dalton Medal, and Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award – Alberto Guadagnini, Paul Bates, and Andrea Cominola.
In the first half of the event, we invited each speaker to give an abridged version of the Medal lectures that they delivered in Vienna, for those who couldn’t attend. In case you missed the campfire event, we also recorded these fantastic talks and link them below!
Paul Bates (University of Bristol) || John Dalton Medal || How far can we go in global flood inundation modelling?
Alberto Guadagnini (Politecnico di Milano) || Henry Darcy Medal || Addressing flow and transport in porous media under uncertainty
Andrea Cominola (Technische Universität Berlin) || Outstanding ECS Award || Harnessing multi-scale human data and Earth observations to foster sustainable water usage and societal adaptation to climate change
After each presentation, the audience had the opportunity to ask questions related to the particular subject of the speaker.
In the second half of the Campfire, we had a very relaxed chat between the audience and the speakers and audience members could ask questions such as:
- What’s the best/worst of career advice you’ve ever had?
- Do you have any tips to manage your time and all your projects better?
- You’re fairly far along in your career – what has been your favourite period?
Our speakers, in turn, answered with grace and a fair bit of humour!
Socio-Hydrology: Evolution and Future Perspectives
The second Campfire event took place on January 22 and we were joined by three experts in socio-hydrology, who have in-depth insights into how the discipline has evolved and what lies ahead.
Murugesu Sivapalan is Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois. Deeply involved with the IAHS and winner of the EGU’s Alfred Wegener and John Dalton Medals, Sivapalan was the lead author of the 2012 paper that launched socio-hydrology as a discipline.
Giuliano Di Baldassarre is Professor of Hydrology and Environmental Analysis at Uppsala University. He was one of the leaders of the IAHS’s scientific Panta Rhei Decade. He has been heavily involved in the development of socio-hydrology, publishing, among others, a landmark study on conceptualising human-flood interactions.
Marlies Barendrecht is a lecturer at King’s College London. A high-profile early-career scientist, her research focuses heavily on human-water systems, leveraging quantitative and qualitative analysis of empirical data and modelling approaches. Her post-doctoral work at VU Amsterdam centred on the impact of human-water interactions on drought-to-flood events.
Each speaker reflected on their personal journey in socio-hydrology and how the discipline has changed over the past decade – from uncertain beginnings to becoming a well-established pillar in hydrological research.
Particularly heartening for Early Career Scientists was Prof. Sivapalan’s reminiscence that the landmark paper that launched the entire discipline was criticised by reviewers for not being innovative enough!
What Lies Ahead for Campfire Events?
If you want to join future campfire events and webinars, keep an eye on the online events calendar! It gives an excellent overview of all the exciting opportunities to connect with colleagues that lie ahead. Make sure to sign up in advance so you will get the link for each event! Do you have an idea for a campfire event yourself? Join the HS ECS team! We are always looking for people to help organise events and bring the HS community closer together.
