Groundwater has always had an image problem. Throughout my career, I have lost count of how many times we have described groundwater as an “invisible resource” or similar. It is almost a cliché in hydrogeology. We use the phrase because it captures something really fundamental: groundwater is hidden physically, but it has also been hidden from public consciousness. What people cannot see or easily ...[Read More]
A little over a decade ago, a group of us argued that “it takes a village to raise a hydrologist”. The skills and knowledge any hydrologist should be exposed to during their training goes far beyond what a single person can do and know. Even more, the experience of how water shapes and interacts with diverse landscapes all around the world cannot be obtained by a single person. This is true especi ...[Read More]
Editor’s note: While this article explores the benefits of Diamond Open Access and critiques commercial, for-profit publishing structures, it is important to note that the European Geosciences Union (EGU) operates on a community-led, transparent, and not-for-profit Open Access model. EGU journals use Article Processing Charges (APCs) strictly to cover publishing costs and support the scientific co ...[Read More]
About a decade ago, I formally retired from Lancaster University (albeit retaining an emeritus position and still producing the occasional paper). In that time, I have been able to pursue my interests in the history of hydrology but also devote more time to my other passion which is landscape photography, especially images of water. As a hydrologist, I do understand that to spend my spare time p ...[Read More]
Today – while preparing my latest Sience – CV (SciCV) version for a proposal submission – I noticed that I will soon celebrate my 20th net-academic-age birthday* (see below). No worries, my editorial is not about looking back on my career, but about offering some hints on how to keep up with evolving research evaluation practices. One of the things that is evolving quickly (for academi ...[Read More]
For all those of us who write research funding proposals, the massive avenue of powerful AI methods poses a serious challenge: how can we appropriately include such methods in our next research project? Is it mandatory, or can we happily focus on our field, lab or numerical methods that we used to always work with? For proposal evaluators, on the other hand, there is this feeling that many proposa ...[Read More]
After 15 days of cycling, I’m beginning to feel hopeful that we might even reach Vienna. The latest setback has been catching Covid (I think), which required 18 hours of sleep in our tent to recover. We’ve been on the Danube for the past few days, currently outside Regensburg Cathedral, where we’ve just joined the Easter Sunday mass. I must admit that we took a train to link betw ...[Read More]
We’ve now been pedalling (unaided by batteries, in case you were wondering) for six days along the Rhine. I’m writing this in the warmth of the evening sun, sparkling off the river, flowing gently past tonight’s campsite, which occupies the hundred metre wide floodplain between the left bank and a steeply-sloping vineyard. Today’s ride took us through Koblenz, where the Mos ...[Read More]
I’m Duncan Faulkner, a hydrologist working for JBA Consulting, and also President of the British Hydrological Society. My first General Assembly – in Hamburg Thirty years ago, 1995, I was about to board a plane for the European Geophysical Society (EGS) General Assembly in Hamburg, to present my first paper at a conference (on statistical modelling of rainfall, if I remember right). Mu ...[Read More]
Starting a PhD can feel overwhelming. Objectives and deadlines pile up, making it seem like you are juggling a thousand tasks at once. However, there are a few steps that do help you navigate this experience. One of the very first steps is to perform your literature review, which will serve as the foundation for your research. To help other early career scientists tackle this activity at the begin ...[Read More]