Hillslope Hydrology Past, Present & Future

The workshop was co-hosted by Laurent Pfister, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST). Thirty five former PhD students, postdocs, and a few close colleagues gathered for the 2-day event, focused on reuniting the lab, celebrating good times and taking stock of the field of hillslope hydrology.

A sub-set of the workshop attendees took part in a pre-workshop walking tour through nearby France:

The tour of course included some field discussion (Important note: that is not gray hair you see on Jeff's head...rather, they are strands of birthday glitter):

An ice-breaker session kicked-off the meeting as chronicled by Julian:

Gordon Grant and Howard Wheater each led the singing of some customized songs during the workshop dinner:

Monday Oct 14, 2019

Main meeting room (3.540 Maison du savoir)

9.00 Welcome: Laurent Pfister and Jeff McDonnell

9.15-10.15 Workshop Lecture: Keith Beven, Hypothesis testing and model invalidation for hillslope hydrology

10.15-10.45 Coffee and pastries

10.45-12.00 Short talks: Session 1 (these will be 5 min, back-to-back talks)

Main Meeting room:

Former PhD students and Post Docs 

Chair: Kevin McGuire

Scott Allen (U Utah), Fates of soil water in forests

Genevieve Ali (Guelph University), Hydrologic connectivity: Truly new concept or case of 'reinventing the wheel'

Ali Ameli (UBC), Direct quantification of the frequency and extent of hillslope hydrologic connectivity

Willemijn Appels (Lethbridge College), Irrigation indoors — using artificial hillslopes for applied research extension

Dough Burns (USGS Troy NY), A hydrological approach to trend analysis to improve understanding of ecosystem recovery

Cody Hale (Nutter and Associates), Hydrologic (Dis)Connectivity: Bridging the gap between science and practice

Nick Hjerdt (SMHI Sweden), From hillslopes to watersheds and continents (and back?) — a personal journey in hydrology

Luisa Hopp (Bayreuth University), The source and flow pathways of nitrate in an agricultural catchment: the role of groundwater and hydrological connectivity

Julian Klaus (LIST), Connectivity and mixing in the HRS continuum

Scott Jasechko, (UC Santa Barbara), Continental-scale hydraulic gradients

April James (Nipissing University), Tracing water cycling in regulated Boreal Shield watersheds using stable water isotopes in northeastern Ontario, Canada

Noon-1.00pm Group photo and lunch outside room [networking with LIST PhD students and early career researchers]

1.30-2.30 Short talks: Session 2 (these will be 5 min, back-to-back talks)

Main meeting room:

Former PhD students and Post Docs

Chair: Scott Jasechko

Richard Keim (LSU), Forest hydrology of fine-grained floodplains

Mike McHale (USGS), Rain, soils,and streams — Change in the Catskill Mountains

Kevin McGuire (Virgina Tech University), What can a hydrologist learn about soil patterns and processes?

Lyssette Muñoz Villers (UNAM Mexico City), Runoff generation in contrasting land cover catchments: Lessons from a tropical montane cloud forest environment in Mexico

Magali Nehemy (University of Saskatchewan), Insights into plant water use from a controlled lysimeter experiment

Natalie Orlowski (Freiburg University), TBA

Luke Pangle (Georgia State University), An urban context for hillslope and headwater catchment hydrology

Leo Peskett (University of Edinburgh), Does spatial organization of vegetation on hillslopes matter?

Taka Sayama (Kyoto University), Groundwater dynamics in humid tropical hillslopes: Toward right impact assessment of landcover and climate changes on catchment hydrology

Jan Seibert (Univeristy of Zurich), Hillslope hydrology in Swederland — runoff generation in Switzerland from Swedish perspective

Ilja van Meerveld (University of Zurich), Effects of hillslope aging, soil and vegetation development on near surface flow pathways

Markus Weiler (Freiburg University), On the pain of losing tennis matches to Jeff but the joy of skiing him into the ground on steep hillslopes

2.30-3.45 Breakout group discussion 1 (Chaired by Ilja van Meerveld):

First few minutes in Main meeting room:

Then, reserved discussion rooms in Library

"What do we know; what do we think we know. The goal of this discussion: what we deem essential to communicate to modellers"

Workshop participants will break into 4 groups—this part for workshop speakers only

3.45-4 Coffee and pastries

Main meeting room:

4-4.30 Reports back by the 4 groups (5-min each) and the Large Group discussion

5.00 Exercise and relaxation time

7.00 Workshop Dinner for Invited Participants, The Seven Hotel. Dinner, toast, humorous anecdotes from the past 30 years, embarrassing stories (but not too embarrassing), songs.

Tuesday Oct 15, 2019

Main meeting room (3.540 Maison du savoir)

9.00 Welcome re-cap, Jeff McDonnell

9.15-10.30 Short talks Session 3 (these will be 5 min, back-to-back talks)

Old Friends (a few older than me, even!) session:

Chair: April James

Paolo Benettin (EPFL), TBA

Fabrizio Fenicia (EAWAG), How can experimentalists contribute in building large scale models

Gordon Grant (US Forest Service), TBA

Rick Hooper (Tufts University), Using geofabrics to synthesize catchment processes to landscape scale

Daniele Penna (Univeristy of Florence), TBA

Laurent Pfister (LIST), From diatoms to the moon: on the benefit and limitations of interdisciplinary work in hydrology

Chris Soulsby (University of Aberdeen), Water storage-flux-age interactions in the extreme hillslopes: moving on from humid temperate catchments

Doerthe Tetzlaff (IGB and Humboldt University), Ecohydrological controls on hillslope connectivity in drought-sensitive mixed land use catchments

Howard Wheater (University of Saskatchewan), Water security and why hillslopes still matter

10.30-11 Coffee and pastries

11.-12.00 Breakout discussion 2 (Chaired by Jan Seibert)

"What don't we know? What are the most important and fundamental questions we have in hillslope hydrolgy—this session is simply to list and discuss as many as possible."

12-12.3 Reports back and large group discussion

12.3-2 Lunch (on own at area restaurants)

2.00-3.00 Breakout Session 3 (Chaired by Markus Weiler)

First few Minutes in Main meeting room:

Then, reserved discussion rooms in Library

Hillslope Hydrology's ~10 most important unanswered questions (motivated by the IAHS 23 Unanswered Questions activity). Pare down and rank the final questions in preparation for the commentary.

2.45pm Coffee and pastries

3-3.30 Reports back and large group discussion in main meeting room

3.30-4.00 Wrap-up discussion, next step plans for commentary, close [McDonnell]

4.00 Adjourn