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Hydrological Sciences

catchments

Can Machine Learning Help Us Monitor Streams?

February 12, 2026
Can Machine Learning Help Us Monitor Streams?
Waterfall flowing over mossy sandstone on Perry Creek, an intermittent stream in northern California, United States (Photo taken by Sarah Ogle in January 2022).

Picture this: you’re hiking through a dry landscape when suddenly you hear it—the serene sound of a babbling brook. You round a corner and discover a small waterfall cascading into crystal-clear pools, surrounded by lush green ferns and wildflowers attracting buzzing bees. It feels like stumbling upon a secret oasis. These magical streams that appear and disappear with the seasons are called ...[Read More]

Do-It-Yourself (DIY) in Geoscience Miniseries – Part 3: Getting it all together – Cables, Breadboards and Circuit Boards

May 9, 2024
Do-It-Yourself (DIY) in Geoscience Miniseries – Part 3: Getting it all together – Cables, Breadboards and Circuit Boards

You got all your components for your project, so now it’s all about getting it all together. Then it’s great to be able to quickly exchange components and change wiring. That’s where a so-called “breadboard” comes in handy. It’s an easy to use device where you can connect microelectronic components without the need to solder anything.   Breadboards are like pinboards for cables and microelect ...[Read More]

Do-It-Yourself (DIY) in Geoscience Miniseries – Part 2: Sensors & Electronics

February 1, 2024
Do-It-Yourself (DIY) in Geoscience Miniseries – Part 2: Sensors & Electronics

As a child, I was a huge fan of LEGO. I would spend hours building and creating structures, vehicles and landscapes. For every birthday & Christmas, I wished for the newest sets of these colorful plastic bricks. While building the sets manually was fun, creating something new from my own fantasy was even better. It seemed like once I had a substantial amount of different bricks, combination po ...[Read More]

Do-It-Yourself (DIY) in Geoscience Miniseries – Part 1: Microcontrollers

November 30, 2023
Do-It-Yourself (DIY) in Geoscience Miniseries – Part 1: Microcontrollers

We geoscientists need all different kinds of data: soil moisture, water-levels, snow height, radiation, precipitation height and the list goes on. However, the devices we need to generate that data are often too expensive, not available or even don’t exist. Therefore, it’s sometimes necessary to build them yourself (like many geoscientists do – those who annually present their senors p ...[Read More]