Introduction to the Special Issue on recent advances in Canadian hydrology, 2003-2007

Canadian Water Resources Journal, Summer, 2009 by John W. Pomeroy, R.D. Moore

This Special Issue of the Canadian Water Resources Journal contains a series of review papers on the progress of Canadian hydrology for the period 2003-2007. This is a snapshot of the progress in Canadian hydrology and is an update to previous reviews published in Hydrological Processes in 2000 (Volume 14, Issue 9) and 2005 (Volume 19, Issue 1).

The Canadian National Committee for the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (CNC-IAHS) is a committee of the Hydrology Section of the Canadian Geophysical Union (CGU-HS). IAHS is one of the eight associations of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG). The main roles of CNC-IAHS are to:

1) encourage and promote the participation of Canadian scientists in IAHS;

2) further the collaboration between IAHS and Canadian scientific organizations and institutions; and

3) respond on behalf of Canada to scientific requests of IAHS.

CNC-IAHS also has an administrative role in seeking and supporting the nominations of Canadian hydrologists to executive positions of IAHS and arranging the selection and nomination of National Representatives to IAHS Commissions. Professor Gordon Young of Wilfrid Laurier University is currently President-elect of IAHS.

The Executive of CNC/IAHS consists of the Senior and Junior Canadian National Representatives (NR) for IAHS plus the President and Vice-President of CGU-HS, the Presidents of the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (CMOS), the Canadian Water Resources Association (CWRA), and the Canadian Chapter of the International Association of Hydrogeologists (CCIAH), and one Member-at-Large elected from the general membership of CGU-HS. The Senior NR serves as the Chair of the Committee and the Junior NR as Secretary. The current Chair of CNC-IAHS is Professor John Pomeroy, Centre for Hydrology, University of Saskatchewan; his term of office will terminate in April 2009. The Secretary and Junior NR is Professor Dan Moore, Department of Forest Resources Management, University of British Columbia. The current structure of the CNC-IAHS is shown in Tables 1 and 2.

Selected members of the Canadian hydrological community were solicited by CNC-IAHS to prepare the papers in this Special Issue. These reviews summarize work conducted in Canada across the breadth of hydrology and demonstrate the continuing leadership and important contributions from Canadian scientists.

Buttle et al. (this issue) provide an overview of progress in forest hydrology with a focus on boreal and temperate forests. The paper documents improvements in understanding hydrological and hydrochemical processes in natural and disturbed forest landscapes at varying spatial and temporal scales. Advances in experimental approaches to examining hydrologic and hydrochemical processes in forests are highlighted, as is the value of hydrologic classification schemes for understanding these key processes. Their paper concludes with identification of critical ongoing and emerging research needs.

Carey and Pomeroy (this issue) review advances made in Canadian snow and frozen ground hydrology where the role of frozen ground, its influence on infiltration, percolation and runoff in both permafrost and more temperate environments continues to be an active area of research. Permafrost at the landscape scale, and its interaction with soil properties in controlling runoff, has received particular attention. Knowledge on physical processes of snow accumulation, redistribution and melt continue to advance through both field experiments and numerical modelling in both natural and urban settings. They also report on new knowledge about snow chemistry.

Waddington et al. (this issue) review advances in peatland hydrology including research on several hydrological processes of particular relevance to peatland areas, such as evapotranspiration and evaporation from open water ponds. Research on Canadian peatlands has made significant methodological advances, including measurement of hydraulic properties of living mosses and peat pore-water and pore dimension characteristics. A multi-annual effort has been undertaken to evaluate carbon dynamics from Canadian peatlands. Summer moisture availability is important to determining carbon fluxes with some peatlands experiencing enhanced productivity following drought. Canadian peatland hydrology continues to be actively researched in lab, field, and modelling studies.

Ashmore et al. (this issue) demonstrate that Canada has an active and diverse group of researchers working on the physical processes of flow and sediment transport in rivers, and river morphology. Recent work has followed earlier areas such as sediment yield and contaminant transport, erosion and transport of cohesive sediment, turbulent flow structures, and bed material transport in gravel-bed rivers along with development of models, techniques and application to river habitat issues. New avenues of research have risen in prominence, some mirroring international activities but Canadian work is leading the way in several. Fluvial research continues to be motivated by establishing fundamental principles, understanding the characteristics and geomorphic history of Canadian river systems, applying findings to the consequences and management of resource exploitation and land-use change, conserving river scapes, mitigating impacts on infrastructure, and anticipating vulnerability to climate change.