HS
Hydrological Sciences

Opinion

What are water walks, and how can you use them as a research method to gather social science research data?

December 5, 2024
What are water walks, and how can you use them as a research method to gather social science research data?
Image credit: pasja1000 on pixabay.com

While doing my PhD, which explored community water governance in Scotland, I interviewed participants to understand their work and views concerning communities.  I quickly found that I wanted and needed to leave my and their offices to have these conversations. The setting restricted the conversation, making it difficult to connect with what they told me, and sometimes to move beyond expected answ ...[Read More]

Being a Hydrology Coach: Some Ideas for Teaching College Hydrology Classes

October 31, 2024
Being a Hydrology Coach: Some Ideas for Teaching College Hydrology Classes
JP Gannon in one of his classes, original published here

Teaching the next generation of scientists, engineers, and planners hydrology may sometimes feel like a chore, but it might be the most impactful thing we do! So, I think it is always worth taking a look to see if we can optimize our approaches. What follows are some ideas that have shaped my teaching strategies over the last decade. I don’t pretend to be an authority on this stuff, but I’ve curat ...[Read More]

Overlooked tips for the lost art of fieldwork

February 29, 2024
Overlooked tips for the lost art of fieldwork
The author finalizing installation of a meteorological station in the Vallon de Nant, just in the kink of time (before winter truly begins).

Not so long ago, almost all hydrologic data depended almost exclusively on fieldwork.  Today, sure, you can download data from repositories, there are satellites that beam you magic numbers that you can interpret to give you almost any variable, and some (less than we might hope) long-term monitoring has been outsourced to governments (or in some cases to citizens with sensors).  But somewhere in ...[Read More]