We've just concluded a great semester of online cyberseminars at CUAHSI. This Spring featured four well-attended seminars ranging from creative and innovative ways of dealing with coastal flooding to the economics and mechanics of hurricane evacuation to the opportunities and challenges inherent in climate forecasting and water management and, finally, to the forces shaping our northern future. These wide-ranging seminars were recorded and are available for viewing—or re-viewing—on the CUAHSI cyberseminars page at cuahsi.org/sem-current.html. We'd like to thank the four presenters for taking the time out of their schedules to put together and conduct the seminars. Jennifer Jacobs (University of New Hampshire) deserves special thanks for rounding up our presenters and for organizing the Spring semester's schedule. And, finally, we'd like to thank all of you who attended the seminars live and those who will take the opportunity to view the recorded versions. You may also want to peruse the list of archived seminars at cuahsi.org/sem-archive.html.

Larry Murdoch, Clemson University — February 25, 2011
Title: Protecting Coastal Cities from Catastrophic Flooding
Recording: cuahsi.acrobat.com/p56187770/

David Letson, University of Miami — March 11, 2011
Title: Economics of Natural Disasters
Recording: cuahsi.acrobat.com/p37811284/

Sankar Arugum, North Carolina State University — April 1, 2011
Title: Climate Forecasts and Water Management: Opportunities and Challenges
Recording: cuahsi.acrobat.com/p25184181/

Laurence Smith, University of California, Los Angeles — April 15, 2011
Title: The New North: Four Forces Shaping our Northern Future
Recording: cuahsi.acrobat.com/p97359545/

The National Science Foundation (NSF)established the National Critical Zone Observatory (CZO) program in 2007 to establish environmental laboratories to study the chemical, physical and biological processes that shape the Earth's surface. The CZOs are community resources for multidisciplinary research, and especially well-suited for interdisciplinary research on the coupled processes in the Critical Zone, defined as Earth's porous near-surface layer, from the top of the vegetation canopy down to the deepest freely circulating fresh groundwater. "In Critical Zone Science, we view the soil as the interface between the earth's spheres - hydrosphere, atmosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere" explains Tim White, National Coordinator of the CZO program and a principal investigator at the Shale Hills CZO, "and water is clearly an important part of that realm." Hydrologic research is a key activity at each of the six current CZO observatories.

The CZOs are a resource for the international science community, providing access to research, infrastructure, data, and models that address cutting edge science questions about the form, structure and evolution of the Critical Zone. In the coming months, CUAHSI will highlight each CZO site and its research and contribution to water science. Currently, the CZO research community consists of around 145 PIs, collaborators and post-docs and 70 graduate students across the six CZO sites. Additionally, there are 51 investigators without direct funding from the CZO program that are conducting research at one or more of the CZO sites. The CZO team strongly encourages additional investigators to take advantage of CZO resources and welcomes additional collaborative opportunities. Those interested in learning more can visit www.criticalzone.org or contact the CZO National Program Coordinator, Tim White (tswhite@essc.psu.edu). [read more]

The 2011 Water and Health Conference: Where Science Meets Policy (October 3-7, 2011), jointly organized by the Institute for the Environment and the Water Institute at University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, will bring together individuals and experts from academia, industry, NGOs, government and foundations to deal with critical concerns relevant to both the developing and developed worlds. The program includes academic sessions and professional development workshops and will consider drinking water supply, sanitation, hygiene and water resources in both the developing and developed worlds with a strong public health emphasis. [more information]

2011 Main Conference Themes:

• Freshwater Availability & Climate Change Adaptation
• Southeastern U.S. Water Challenges
• Human Rights and Ethics
• Small Community Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
• Peri-urban Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
• Hygiene Behaviors and Household Water Treatment

June 22-24, 2011 - Utah State University - Logan, UT — CUAHSI is hosting a conference on Hydrologic Data and Information Systems. This will showcase the scientific progress enabled through the use of advanced information and data management systems. We welcome contributed presentations of your work on or related to data management in hydrology. The conference will also showcase the CUAHSI Hydrologic Information System (HIS), a Web-based system for sharing hydrologic data. Sessions will include presentations on all aspects of hydroinformatics and hands-on training, workshops and expert advice on HIS. Sessions are planned to benefit a broad cross section of users and developers, including:

• Researchers: science enabled by hydrologic data and information systems
• Educators: uses of water data and HIS software tools for teaching
• Modelers: coupling models and data from multiple sources using HIS and related systems
• Data Publishers: organizing, storing, and making data available to others

Abstracts due May 15, 2011 — Registration due May 30, 2011

See the HIS website for more information.