World’s Water Leaders Meet at Colorado State to Address Critical Water Issues at 24th Annual Hydrology Days

Note to Editors: Credentialed media are welcome to attend part or all of the Hydrology Days conference. If interested, please reserve a place by calling Brad Bohlander at (970) 491-1545.

Hydrology experts, water managers, civil engineers and other water-related researchers and policy makers from across the United States and throughout the world are gathering at Colorado State University March 10-12 to address critical water issues at the 24th Annual Hydrology Days conference. The yearly symposium provides a unique, multi-disciplinary forum for researchers and professionals in hydrologic science and closely related disciplines to exchange ideas and discuss all aspects of water.

"The collection of water leaders who will lead discussions at this year’s Hydrology Days provides an unprecedented opportunity for education, training and collaboration," said Jorge A. Ram?rez, professor of civil engineering and chairman of the Hydrology Days organizing committee. "Colorado State is known internationally as a leader in water resources engineering and hydrologic science and is an ideal setting for such a prominent collection of professionals to move toward solving water-related challenges such as those associated with drought, flooding and environmental impacts, all in the context of ever increasing water demands."

Sponsored by the American Geophysical Union, the annual Hydrology Days conference began at Colorado State in 1981. The conference provides a forum for outstanding scientists and professionals to share ideas, problems, analyses and solutions. Key topics of this year’s conference include contaminant transport and urban water quality, groundwater remediation, impacts of forest fires, mine waste pollution, landscape evolution, agricultural irrigation and hydroclimatology.

Andras Szollosi-Nagy, director of the Division of Water Sciences, assistant director-general of the Natural Sciences Sector and secretary of the International Hydrological Programme of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, is being honored as the 2004 Hydrology Days Award winner. The Hydrology Days Award is presented each year to an outstanding individual in recognition of his or her contributions to hydrology and related fields.

Szollosi-Nagy will present "Water Interactions: Systems at Risk – What Can the Science of Hydrology Do?," at noon March 11.

This year’s event features two Borland lectures, which are keynote presentations by individuals who have risen to the top ranks of the field. The first Borland lecture will be presented by renowned researchers and Colorado State faculty Everett V. Richardson and Daryl Simmons and is titled "Whit Borland: Personal Perspectives." The other Borland lecture, titled "Applied Stochastic Hydrology," will be given by Jerson Kelman, director and president of the National Water Agency of Brazil and a graduate of Colorado State. The Borland lectures, one following the other, begin at noon on March 12.  

This year’s Hydrology Days also will feature a special presentation by Paul R. Portney, president of Resources for the Future, a Washington, D.C., environmental policy think tank. Portney will present "Numbers Tell the Tale: The Role of Data in Environmental Policymaking" at 7 p.m. March 11 in Ammons Hall on the Colorado State campus. Portney’s talk, sponsored by the American Institute of Economics, is free and open to the public.  

The conference additionally features presenters from top universities, public agencies and private organizations throughout the world. Presenters include representatives from Colorado State; the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Flinders University in  Australia; Oxford University; Indiana University Northwest; University of Genoa in Italy; U.S. Geological Survey; USDA-ARS Great Plains Systems Research Unit; University of Alaska; United States Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation; University of Applied Sciences, Civil Engineering, at Muttenz, Switzerland; Ferdowsi University of Mashhad in Iran; the International Relations Institute of Cameroon;  and several others.

For more information about Hydrology Days and a complete conference program, including all presentations, speakers and presentation abstracts, visit the Web at http://hydrologydays.colostate.edu/  or call (970) 491-7621.

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