International Association of Hydrological Sciences ... · and practice of hydrology and water resources management. ... has played a critical role in developing isotope ... knowledge

Association Internationale des Sciences Hydrologiques

International Association of Hydrological SciencesAssociation International des Sciences Hydrologiques

InternationalHydrologyToday

IAHSAISH

International Association of Hydrological Sciences

© IAHS Press 2003ISBN 1-901502-17-1

Published by the International Association of Hydrological Sciences

February 2003

Front cover picture:Water level measurements of a reservoir constructed to store seasonal rainfall for domestic use, animalwatering and small-scale irrigation, Zimbabwe

Interrogating a waterlevel recorder using alaptop PC, Zimbabwe

ContributorsWojciech Froehlich, Alan Gustard, Pierre Hubert,Gerry Jones, Georg Kaser, Chris Leibundgut, Al Pietroniro,John Rodda, Yoram Rubin, Andreas Schumann,Murugesu Sivapalan, Kuniyoshi Takeuchi,Charles Vörösmarty and Bruce Webb.

AcknowledgementsParticular thanks are due to Frances Watkins for checkingthe proofs, and to Jürgen Strub and Martin Hodnett forproviding the photographs used on the cover andelsewhere. Other people assisted the contributors invarious ways: their efforts are appreciated.

Fluvial depositionassociated with the TeestaRiver crossing the Ganga-Brahmaputra Plain, India

Published byIAHS Press, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology,Wallingford, Oxfordshire,OX10 8BB, UK

Printed byAlden Group, Oxford, UK

Edited byCate Gardner

Design and LayoutJohn Griffin and Cate Gardner

© IAHS Press 2003

This publication may be reproduced as hard copy foreducational or nonprofit uses, without special permissionfrom the copyright holder, provided full acknowledgementof the source is made. No use of this publication may bemade for electronic publishing, distribution or anycommercial purposes without the prior written permissionof IAHS Press.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data: a cataloguerecord for this book is available from the British Library

Association Internationale des Sciences Hydrologiques 1

International Hydrology Today

In 2002, the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) reachedthe 80th anniversary of its founding in 1922, in Rome, as the then InternationalSection of Hydrology of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics(IUGG).

This publication celebrates these 80 years of international endeavour inhydrology. It provides a review of the Association’s activities today and focuseson the hydrological sciences and their applications in which the IAHS ScientificCommissions are currently involved.

The Association is open to everyone worldwide with an interest in the researchand practice of hydrology and water resources management. Membership isfree of charge. You are most welcome to join any of our activities and contributeto the continuation of international cooperation in water sciences.

Kuniyoshi Takeuchi (President IAHS, 2001–2005)

Tributes to IAHSFrom Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO 2From Dr Mohamed ElBaradei, Director-General, IAEA 3From Professor G.O.P. Obasi, Secretary-General, WMO 4

Introducing IAHS 5

Contributions from the IAHS International Commissions on:Surface Water 8Groundwater 10Continental Erosion 12Snow and Ice 14Water Quality 16Water Resources Systems 18Remote Sensing 20Atmosphere–Soil–Vegetation Relations 22Tracers 24

The new IAHS initiative — PUB, Prediction in Ungauged Basins 26

IAHS Publications 29

Contacts 32

2 International Association of Hydrological Sciences

Tributes to IAHSfrom the Director-General of UNESCOthe United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization

It gives me great pleasure to contribute to this 80th anniversarybrochure of the International Association of HydrologicalSciences (IAHS), which has been a close partner of UNESCOsince 1945. This partnership was further strengthened with thelaunching of the UNESCO International Hydrological Decade,during which several IAHS symposia and associated IAHSpublications (now known as ‘the Red Books’) were devoted tovarious activities within the global network of InternationalHydrological Programme (IHP) Representative Basins.

Since 1975, the IAHS has continued to work in close partnershipwith the IHP by dedicating IAHS symposia and workshops tohydrological and water resources management topics approvedby the IHP Intergovernmental Council from the first to fifthphases of the Programme.

During this time, water has progressively emerged to becomeone of the most pressing international issues of our time on theenvironment, development and even the peace agendas. Water isalso one of UNESCO’s highest priority areas. Since 2000,UNESCO has taken the lead in hosting the Secretariat of theinter-agency World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP),whose first World Water Development Report (WWDR) Imyself will present at the forthcoming 3rd World Water Forumto be held in Kyoto, Japan, in March 2003. In addition,UNESCO and UNDESA (the UN Department of Economic andSocial Affairs) are the lead agencies on behalf of the UN systemfor developing activities for the International Year of Freshwater2003.

These developments aim to highlight where the major researchgaps in hydrological science exist. The most urgent water policyand management issues are within the areas of climatevariability and change, environment and human health, and foodsecurity. In response, the International Hydrological Programmewill continue to reinforce its close collaboration with the IAHSto address critical research needs such as groundwater, theimpact of extreme events (floods, droughts) and water qualityprocesses. This collaboration will contribute towards providingbetter access to safe drinking water to fulfil human needs.

Koïchiro MatsuuraJanuary 2003


Sustainable water resources management: forty years ofcooperation between IAEA and IAHS

The recently concluded World Summit on Sustainable Developmentrecognised the need to improve the scientific understanding of thewater cycle and to improve the availability of hydrological informationas a means for sustainable management of water resources.

Since its inception in 1957, the International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA) has played a critical role in developing isotope applications forhydrology, with a particular focus on understanding the earth’s watercycle. A global network of isotopes in precipitation (GNIP) has beenoperational for about the last 40 years, providing critical data tounderstand the origin and variability of precipitation. A network ofisotope monitoring stations for rivers is being designed to maximiseand broaden the precipitation isotope data.

Through an active technical cooperation programme, with a funding ofnearly $8M per biennium, we assist our developing Member States inusing isotope techniques for the assessment and monitoring of waterresources, in particular groundwater resources. In addition, substantialhuman resources and institutional capacity are being built through theprovision of training and appropriate equipment for monitoring.

Isotope techniques have been particularly effective when used as anintegral part of hydrological practices in the water sector. To this end,the IAEA strives to work in partnership with national and internationalorganisations. We have a long-standing collaboration with theInternational Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS), which in1963 was a co-sponsor of the first IAEA symposium on nucleartechniques in hydrology. Since then, the partnership has increased inmany different areas. Presently, the IAHS Commission on Tracers hasbeen closely involved with our programmes to increase the use andintegration of isotope techniques in hydrology.

I congratulate IAHS on its many proud accomplishments in its 80-yearhistory and wish great success in its activities in the years to come. Ilook forward to further strengthening our cooperation to continue tohelp improve education and research in, and practice of, hydrologicalsciences worldwide.

Dr Mohamed ElBaradeiJanuary 2003

from the Director-General of IAEAthe International Atomic Energy Agency


from the Secretary-General of WMOthe World Meteorological Organization

The International Association of Hydrological Sciences(IAHS), one of the oldest international Non-GovernmentalOrganisations (NGOs), has made substantial contributionsover the past 80 years to our understanding of hydrologicalprocesses and to improving the management of the world’swater resources.

Both the International Meteorological Organization (IMO),founded as an NGO in 1873, and WMO, which was created in1950 as IMO’s successor, have enjoyed a special relationshipwith IAHS. In 1954, the United Nations Economic and SocialCouncil proposed that WMO should take responsibility foroperational hydrology in collaboration with NationalHydrological Services and IAHS. This recommendation wassupported by the Council of IAHS and its parent body, theInternational Union of Geodesy and Geophysics. In 1955, apanel of seven experts, including an IAHS representative,prepared a draft WMO programme that defined WMO’sactivities in the field of hydrology and water resources.

WMO’s participation in the inter-agency InternationalHydrological Decade (1965–1974), proposed by IAHS, led tothe establishment of WMO’s Hydrology and Water ResourcesProgramme in 1974. IAHS is the only NGO regularly invitedto sessions of the Advisory Working Group of WMO’sCommission for Hydrology. Likewise, WMO is invited tosessions of the Association’s Bureau.

On behalf of the World Meteorological Organization, theworld’s hydrological and meteorological communities andmyself, I am pleased to convey our best wishes to one of ouroldest, closest and most outstanding non-governmentalpartners. I wish to pay tribute to the founding fathers of IAHSand to the successive generations of officers and members ofthe Association for their foresight and commitment for theadvancement of their profession and the science of hydrology.On this auspicious occasion, I also wish the IAHS many moreyears of productive service for the benefit of humankind.

Professor G. O. P. ObasiJanuary 2003


Introducing IAHSThe International Association of Hydrological Sciences

Starting pointFrom its launch in 1922, the activities of theInternational Association of Hydrological Scienceshave helped to solve the pressing problems of waterresources existing in many parts of the world. ThisAssociation — the oldest and most distinguishedinternational learned society in the water field —serves the needs of humanity through the promotionof science and the stimulation of its applications.IAHS has accomplished this by acting as a catalystfor international cooperation and sound managementin the development and use of water resources.

Basic to these endeavours is the pursuit of thescience of hydrology. This is the science which“deals with the waters above and below the landsurfaces of the Earth, their occurrence, circulationand distribution, both in space and time, theirbiological, chemical and physical properties, theirreaction with the environment, including theirrelations to living things”.

The forums of the Association provide fordiscussion, comparison and publication of the resultsof research, and initiate, facilitate and coordinateresearch into those hydrological problems that requireinternational cooperation. They offer a firm scientificbasis for the optimal use of water resources systems.This includes educational outreach and the transfer ofknowledge on planning, engineering, managementand the economic aspects of applied hydrology andwater resources.

In a changing world, where diminishing waterresources and the hazards of floods, droughts andpollution play an ever increasing role, what could bemore important than to improve and disseminateknowledge and understanding of these fields throughthe science of hydrology?

IAHS todayIAHS is a nonprofit-making non-governmentalscientific organisation dedicated to the improvementof the well-being of every man, woman and child onthis planet through the motivation of the communityof scientists and engineers involved in the study andapplication of hydrology and water resources. TheAssociation is widely known for the vitality of itsactivities, particularly for its scientific meetings —assemblies, symposia and workshops — and for itspublications and research projects. It now has amembership of over 3700 globally, drawn from 129

countries. As there is no membership fee (unlike mostother scientific bodies), the Association is accessibleto any professionally-interested person worldwide,including many in developing countries and in thosecountries where the economy is in transition. ButIAHS is not a rich organisation: it has no dedicatedbenefactors. Its main source of income comes fromthe sales of its publications: Hydrological SciencesJournal, the proceedings of symposia, and specialpublications, to libraries, IAHS members and otherinterested parties, worldwide.

GovernanceThe Association is run for its members by itsmembers. Every four years there are elections at theGeneral Assembly for the honorary officers of theAssociation, elections which are conducted in a fairand open fashion, in accordance with its Statutes andBylaws. The President, Secretary General, Treasurer,Editor and other officers of the Association form theBureau, which manages the affairs of IAHS betweenGeneral Assemblies.

IAHS is one of seven autonomous bodies thattogether make up the International Union of Geodesyand Geophysics (IUGG) founded in 1919. IUGG isone of the members of the International Council forScience (formerly ICSU) with its secretariat in Paris.The Association is a leading member of the Inter-national Water Associations Liaison Committee, thecommittee established to bring together the dozen orso water-orientated international non-governmentalorganisations. IAHS is an elected member of theWorld Water Council Board of Governors andcollaborates closely with UNESCO, WMO and IAEAthrough their respective programmes in water. Thiscollaboration, in the case of UNESCO, WMO andIAEA, dates back to the 1960s: IAHS was one of thefounders of the International Hydrological Decade(1965–1974) that led to the current InternationalHydrological Programme in UNESCO. Thesedifferent links provide a wider stage over which theAssociation operates, the links to the agencies of theUnited Nations being particularly important.

Scientific CommissionsThe activities of the Association are initiatedprimarily by its nine Scientific Commissions, whichdeal either with specific aspects of hydrology or withthemes that cut across several or all aspects of


hydrology. They are the International Commissions on:Surface Water, ICSWGroundwater, ICGWContinental Erosion, ICCESnow and Ice, ICSIWater Quality, ICWQWater Resources Systems, ICWRSRemote Sensing, ICRSAtmosphere–Soil–Vegetation Relations, ICASVRTracers, ICT

The officers of each Commission are elected from theIAHS membership, by the members, every four years.Each Commission has contributed a review of theiractivities and current work in their field for thispublication.

ProgrammeThe Association’s activities span a four-year cyclebetween General Assemblies. Recent Assemblieshave been at Birmingham, UK, 1999, and Boulder,USA, 1995; the next will be in Sapporo, Japan, in July2003. Each year the Association and its Commissionsorganise symposia and workshops in different parts ofthe world, often in cooperation with UNESCO andWMO. For example, in 2003 the Association isorganising and co-sponsoring meetings atStellenbosch, South Africa; Valdivia, Chile;Montpellier, France; Vienna, Austria; Tallinn,Estonia; Davos, Switzerland; Visakhapatnam, India,and Rome, Italy: each will address a single topic.

Halfway between General Assemblies, theAssociation organises its Scientific Assemblies. Themost recent was held in Maastricht, The Netherlands,in July 2001, and the previous one was in Rabat,Morocco, in 1997. The next is planned for Iguacu,Brazil, in 2005. During the week of a General orScientific Assembly, there are up to six symposia andten workshops covering a large number of topics.

For example, at Rabat in 1997, six symposiaaddressed: Sustainability of Water Resources UnderIncreasing Uncertainty; Hard Rock Hydrosystems;Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systemsfor the Design and Operation of Water ResourcesSystems; Freshwater Contamination; Hydrochemistry;and Human Impact on Erosion and Sedimentation.This Assembly had 455 participants, from 53 countries.

ProjectsThe Association undertakes and promotes researchprojects; for example during the period 1993–1998much effort was devoted to a sustainable reservoirdevelopment and management project. A number ofIAHS projects have contributed to the InternationalHydrological Programme. The International FRIENDProject is worth a special mention, as this hasadvanced cooperation, hydrological understandingand capacity building regionally, such as in theSouthern Africa Development Community (SADC)countries, in West Africa and in the Hindu KushHimalayan Region.

A nonprofit making nongovernmental organisation

Promoting the study and application of hydrology and water resources for the benefit of allpeople and the environment

Run by hydrologists for hydrologists

More than 3700 members drawn from 129 countries

Membership free of charge

Supported by sales of IAHS publications and donations from various organisations

Working closely with IUGG, ICS, IWA, WWC, UNESCO, WMO and IAEA

Nine scientific commissions on Surface Water, Groundwater, Continental Erosion, Snow and Ice,Water Quality, Water Resources Systems, Remote sensing, Atmosphere–Soil–VegetationRelations and Tracers

Current projects including: Hydrology 2020 and Prediction in Ungauged Basins (PUB)

Disseminating research results and practice via meetings, training courses, publications and theIAHS web site: http://www.cig.ensmp.fr/~iahs

Providing publications free to libraries in financially disadvantaged countries and supportingscientists from these countries attending meetings


A new IAHS project has been launched onPrediction in Ungauged Basins (PUB), addressingone of the crucial difficulties in the hydrologicalsciences. As many ungauged basins are located in lessdeveloped countries, which cannot afford costlymonitoring programmes, establishing an efficientmethodology is of vast practical importance forassessment of water resources and buildingpreparedness systems against water-related disasters.The kick-off meeting of the PUB project, held inNovember 2002 in Brasilia, raised considerableinterest amongst many individuals and severalsupporting bodies worldwide.

Following the success of the IAHS Hydrology2000 Working Group (which reported in 1987), theAssociation set up the Hydrology 2020 WorkingGroup in 2001, composed of a dozen hydrologists,aged 35 or less, each from a different country. Theaim of the Group is to predict what the science will belike some 15 years ahead when they report in 2005.The Hydrology 2000 Report (IAHS Publ. no. 171)makes very interesting reading today!

PublicationsThe IAHS publications programme started in 1924with the production of the proceedings of symposiaorganised by the Association. This series, known asthe “Red Books” because of their distinctive redcovers, reached IAHS Publication no. 100 in 1970and no. 276 by 2002. The Association’s scientificjournal was started in 1956. Now called theHydrological Sciences Journal, it is published bi-monthly with about ten papers in English or French ineach issue. From time to time a special issue isproduced: the most recent (vol. 47(5), 2002) containsinvited papers on Ecohydrology. Over the last twoyears the Journal has risen sharply up the list of 50water journals in the ISI Journals Citation Index:currently it is ranked fifth with an impact factor of1.22 (ISI Journals Citation Report, 2001).

A series of Special Publications was started in1989. The most recent deal with the hydrology andwater resources of the River Nile (Special Publ. 5,1999) and the ecohydrology of South American riversand wetlands (Special Publ. 6, 2002). A series onsnow and ice has been published jointly by IAHS andUNESCO, while UNESCO’s International HydrologySeries was published by IAHS. In the early 1980s, aninformal newsletter was started by the then SecretaryGeneral to keep members abreast of IAHS activities.This newsletter has developed into a 24+ pagepublication, which appears three times a year in 4500copies.

The IAHS website http://www.cig.ensmp.fr/~iahscontains information, articles and abstracts ofscientific papers from these different publications.

OutreachIAHS involves its members as readers of publications,participants in scientific meetings and users of resultsof research projects, and more actively as authors ofarticles in IAHS publications, contributors to scientificmeetings and to research projects. The benefits derivedfrom these activities and their practical applications atgrassroots level are very difficult to quantify, a problemfaced by IAHS and all similar bodies.

The IAHS Task Force for Developing Countries(TFDC) helps less developed countries to contributeto hydrological research, improve understanding oftheir water resources and manage them moreeffectively. It has accomplished this since 1991 bydistributing the Journal and other publications tomore than 70 libraries and institutes in some 50countries free of charge. The aim is to providescientists and engineers in these countries access tothe most recent hydrological literature, so long as thisliterature is made widely available inside and outsidethe recipient organisation. The TFDC has also beensuccessful in obtaining funds from outside bodies tosupport the attendance of members from developingcountries at IAHS symposia and assemblies. Thesefunds have been generously donated since 1991 byUNESCO, WMO, UNEP, IAEA, Rotary International,IUGG and ICSU, as well as by a number of privatetrusts and organisations and by government agencies,including those in Canada, France, Germany, Italy,Japan, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden,Switzerland, the UK and the USA. The UK’sDepartment for International Development (DFID)has been very supportive of the Association for anumber of years.

The futureThe six billion or more people on this planet nowdepend on the world’s finite supply of freshwater, butbefore 2050 there will be two or three million morewith even greater needs. Water for drinking, foodproduction, sanitation, power, navigation and a hostof other purposes is the basis of civilisation. But atpresent more than one billion only have water unsafeto drink, and over two billion lack proper sanitation.Hundreds of millions live in places where water isvery scarce, a contested resource and where therecurring dangers of floods and droughts may beexacerbated by climate change.

The equitable and sustainable allocation of waterresources and the prediction and mitigation of theimpacts of extreme events must be based on thecomprehensive understanding of these resourcesgained through cooperation amongst hydrologists andothers professionally involved, and throughcooperation and solidarity amongst nations. IAHS is aprime medium for maintaining this cooperation.


Surface WaterICSW, International Commission on Surface Water

IAHS can contribute to a number of key challenges inthe 21st century. These are severest and most urgentin developing countries, where 1.2 billion people lackaccess to safe drinking water, 2.9 billion lackadequate sanitation and 4 million children die eachyear from water-related diseases. Demographic trendsindicate continued population growth from 5 billionin 1990 to more than 8 billion in 2025. In addition toproviding water supplies and sanitation, there is aneed to mitigate the impact of natural disasters,particularly floods and droughts, by improved designand forecasting. In developed countries, hydrologicalissues continue to be critical in the sustainabledevelopment of river basins. High priority issues arethe allocation of water between direct uses (forexample: irrigation, water and power supply) and forthe maintenance of ecosystems, and the reduction ofthe economic and social costs associated with floodsand droughts.

ICSW is responsible for promoting research insurface water hydrology and its interaction with otheraspects of the hydrological cycle. The primary focusof activities is to advance knowledge of the dynamicsand statistics of surface water hydrology and toencourage the transfer of this knowledge to theinternational scientific hydrological community andthe water industry to improve the design andoperation of hydrological systems. Historically, ourcore activities have been flood and droughtprediction, mitigation and forecasting. However, ahigher priority is now given to interdisciplinaryresearch. This includes instream ecology, wetlandecology, poverty reduction, hydrology and health, andknowledge building to reduce international conflict inwater. The Commission maintains close links with theInternational Hydrological Programme of UNESCOand with WMO programmes, for example insupporting the global FRIEND (Flow Regimes fromInternational Experimental and Network Data), HELP(Hydrology, Life Environment and Policy) andWHYCOS (World Hydrological Cycle ObservingSystem) programmes.

ICSW addresses a number of key questions,including:– How can we reduce the uncertainty of estimating

extremes at ungauged sites?– Is there any evidence for an increase or decrease in

the frequency of floods and droughts?– Can we predict the impact of climate and land-use

change on the peak and volume of flood responseand the duration and magnitude of low riverflows?

– Can we predict, over timescales of 5–100 years,the impact of deglaciation on the water resources10–2000 km downstream from major glaciers?

– How do we ensure that river flows are bothaccurately measured, quality controlled andarchived to support operational hydrology andhydrological research by this and futuregenerations?

– How can we use remote sensing to advanceunderstanding and prediction of extremes, e.g.using weather radar to forecast flood peaks?

– How can we make use of global relationshipsbetween the atmosphere, oceans and land surfaceWetland monitoring in Mauritania, West Africa


to make medium range forecasts of water resourceavailability?

– How do we ensure that the benefits of floodinundation for agriculture, fisheries andbiodiversity are maintained whilst the adversedamage to life and our economy are minimised?

– Can we develop predictive models for assessingthe impact of changing flow regimes on instreammacrophytes, invertebrates and fish?

– How do we balance the demands for surface water,for irrigation and water supply, with theenvironmental demands to maintain a healthyecosystem?

– How do we improve our understanding of thehydrological functions of wetland ecosystems?

– Can advances in hydrology be used to understandvectors for waterborne disease and thereby reduceinfant mortality?

– How do we transfer our knowledge toenvironmental protection agencies and waterutilities?

The present decade marks a new landmark inhydrology. It is a decade when both the hydrological

challenges to improve the well-being of society andour access to data, hydrological models and processunderstanding have never been greater. Theenvironmental challenges provide an outstandingopportunity for young researchers to use theirscientific knowledge to address these issues of globalimportance.

River Vltava, Prague,August 2002 (Source: Czech

Hydrometeorological Institute)

Low river flow and habitat loss caused by aprolonged period with little rainfall andsustained groundwater pumping from theCretaceous Chalk aquifer, southern England

Recent ICSW-linked publications include:

Hydro-ecology: Linking Hydrology andAquatic Ecology (IAHS Publ. no. 266, 2001).

FRIEND 2002 — Regional Hydrology:Bridging the Gap between Research andPractice (IAHS Publ. no. 274, 2002).

FRIEND — a global perspective 1998–2002,Centre for Ecology and Hydrology,Wallingford, UK (2002).


GroundwaterICGW, International Commission on Groundwater

Only a small percentage of the world’s total waterresource is available to human beings as freshwater,and more than 98% of the available freshwater isgroundwater. The storage capacity of groundwaterreservoirs combines with small flow rates to providelarge, extensively distributed sources of water supply.Hence, groundwater plays an important role in thedevelopment and management of water resources.

However, in order to solve the managementproblem, we must be able to predict the response ofthe system to any proposed operation policy, tocontamination hazards, and to developments such asclimate change and population growth. Prediction ofgroundwater flow and contaminant transport istherefore a prerequisite to properly addressing themanagement and sustainable use of groundwater.

Groundwater hydrologyUnderstanding the factors that control the flow ofwater through soils has led to the development of oneof the most important fields in the earth sciences:groundwater hydrology. Over the years an impressivebody of theory and practice has been developed. It isrecognised that the nature of underground flow andcontaminant transport must be understood in order todevelop meaningful solutions to groundwaterproblems. This is not an easy task because thecomplexities of the geological processes cause manyvariations in natural flow systems. Groundwatersystems often display complex patterns, manifested inthe spatial variability of controlling parameters andboundary conditions at all scales of practicalsignificance.

The study of groundwater requires newapproaches and solutions and must face thecontinuing difficulties in developing models thatrepresent groundwater systems. These are among themost difficult of earth system models because thesystems are inaccessible and (as shown in the figure)very heterogeneous. Yet to properly manage suchsystems, detailed characterisation is required.Numerical solutions to groundwater problems areoften necessary to solve complex problemsencountered in the field. Furthermore, hydrologicalvariables are usually affected by uncertainty, and bothdeterministic and stochastic methods of investigation

are considered in groundwater studies. For any givengroundwater system, some features are knownrelatively well and it is most advantageous torepresent them in a model deterministically. Otherfeatures are less clearly known, or known very little,and it is important to represent them using stochasticmethods in order to provide risk-qualified evaluationsand decisions.

ActivitiesICGW is responsible for the advancement of thescience of groundwater hydrology, including thescientific basis for groundwater resource assessmentand groundwater management. It also helps to bridgethe gap between science and practice. A primaryobjective is to give greater exposure to valuable newtechnologies and methodologies that are useful ingroundwater resource and water quality studies. Thisis accomplished through organised technologytransfer activities and publications. ICGW dischargesits responsibilities in three ways:

First, it organises significant internationalsymposia, such as the well-known and successful GQ(Groundwater Quality) and ModelCARE conferenceseries, and sponsors occasional regional symposia.

Second, it collaborates with other IAHScommissions and with other scientific organisations,including the American Geophysical Union (AGU),the International Association of Hydrogeologists(IAH) and the International Ground Water ModellingCenter (IGWMC).

Third, it organises working groups to developreports that focus on new and important aspects ofhydrogeology. These activities are frequentlycoordinated with the International HydrologicalProgramme (IHP) of UNESCO.

Current research themesExamples of areas in which the Commission hastraditionally been active and new areas that are beingdeveloped currently are:– Groundwater quality, devoted to studying the

movement of miscible (inert, reactive) andimmiscible solutes in complex groundwatersystems, as a result of the various contaminationsources that may be present in the water cycle.


– Environmental risk assessment, where theavailable tools for predicting pollutant migrationare applied to evaluate the level of risk associatedwith groundwater contamination.

– Numerical modelling, devoted to accurate analysisand addressing the high level of complexityexhibited by both the natural aquifer systems andthe physical processes that take place.

– Innovative field and laboratory measurementtechniques, which are important for understandingthe processes acting in groundwater and foracquiring the data necessary for model calibrationand analysis.

– Advanced field data interpretation methods, whereall the most recent theories and tools are applied tounderstand the fundamental processes acting innatural aquifers.

– Characterisation of heterogeneous media,including hydrogeological and hydrogeochemicalaquifer properties. This element is fundamental tothe study of flow and solute transport in naturalaquifers, which typically exhibit spatially variablehydraulic properties.

– Management of groundwater resources underuncertainty, where groundwater problems areformulated in probabilistic terms, and innovativetechniques are developed to overdesign cost-effectively groundwater management schemes inorder to accommodate our predictive uncertainty.

– Effects of global change on groundwater, in termsof recharge, especially in arid and semiaridregions, in relation to water resourcesmanagement, and in terms of responses of aquifersto extreme hydrological events, with respect toboth quantitative and qualitative aspects.

– Analysing the effects of population growth ongroundwater resources and available drinkingwater using large-scale groundwater models, aswell as analysing mitigation.

Electrical imaging of a variably weathered granitebedrock overlain by clay in places (India). Greensare more permeable weathered granite; bluesshow the presence of clay and reducedpermeability. Image provided by Ron Barker,University of Birmingham, UK

Depositional environments in the creation ofburied valley aquifers, showing some of theheterogeneities and challenges often met in

characterising and modelling flow and transportin aquifers

This list could easily be extended, given thenumber of groundwater problems arising in watermanagement and water use. The areas of interestlisted emphasise that groundwater hydrology isheavily based on an interdisciplinary approach,involving different fields such as physics, chemistry,geology and other earth science related disciplines.Towards this goal, the role of ICGW is also topromote exchanges between researchers working indifferent fields, in order to analyse groundwaterproblems from various perspectives and cooperate inthe solution of the theoretical and practical problemsof groundwater hydrology.

Besides the promotion of the science ofgroundwater hydrology, ICGW commits itself topromote the development of methodologies forenhancing communication between hydrogeologists,decision makers and communities to strengthenpublic participation in groundwater analysis andprotection. Such ambitious tasks will go far towards abetter understanding of groundwater problems bydifferent groups of stakeholders, and help to integrateand balance the needs of the social groups.

Dep

th, m

Resistivity, ohm.m Unit electrode spacing 5.0m Iteration 5: RMS error = 4.9%


Continental ErosionICCE, International Commission on Continental Erosion

ICCE is dedicated to the advancement of research inerosion, sediment transport and sedimentationprocesses in relation to hydrology and fluvialgeomorphology. It is also involved in the study ofglobal patterns of erosion and sediment yield, andtheir controls, and of the role of particulate matter inthe transport of contaminants within fluvial systems.In some areas, sediment-associated nutrients andcontaminants cause serious pollution problems.Recognition of the important role of sediment in thetransport of contaminants has given rise to a need forimproved understanding of the routing of sedimentthrough the fluvial system of drainage basins ofdifferent scales and of the dynamics of the sinksinvolved.

At the global scale, soil erosion is one of the majorcontemporary environmental issues. In many areas ofthe world, erosion rates have increased dramaticallyas a result of forest clearance and land-use change,and this accelerated erosion is commonly paralleledby marked increases in sediment yield. Bothincreased on-site soil loss and increased suspendedsediment loads can give rise to serious economic andenvironmental problems: reduced soil productivity,reservoir sedimentation, disruption of water supplyinfrastructure and degradation of freshwater habitats.Soil erosion has an immediate impact on the long-term productivity of soil.

The continuing global population growth willresult in an increasing demand for food. Soil erosionand associated land degradation threaten the world’scapacity to produce the required food. Thus, moreresearch is needed on soil erosion processes and theircontrol, and better data must be provided on rates ofsoil loss and depletion of the soil resource in differentareas of the world.

Studies of soil erosion at the landscape scale usingclassical methods are difficult, time consuming andexpensive. Over the past 35 years, researchers haveinvestigated the potential of using environmental andman-made radioisotopes (210Pb, 7Be and 137Cs) tostudy soil erosion, sediment source and sedimenta-tion. Although the use of radiometric methods todocument rates and patterns of soil loss is attractivein its simplicity, it is founded on several keyassumptions. A number of the potential limitations of

using fallout radionuclides to estimate erosion are nogreater than those associated with other techniquesused by soil scientists and geomorphologists.

The need to investigate the sediment budgets ofcatchments in a variety of environments introduces animportant methodological problem in documentingthe movement and storage of sediment within largebasins. In many, the source of sediment transportedfrom the basin may be uncertain and there is clearly aneed for further research to develop techniques forestablishing sediment sources and for tracing themovement of the associated sediment through thefluvial system. Studies of fallout radionuclides andtheir redistribution within a drainage basin provideone possible approach to this problem.

The growing demand for water will inevitably leadto construction of many new dams. Althoughreservoir sedimentation problems are now wellrecognised, there is still a need to develop bettermethods of predicting basin sediment yields inregions where such data are absent and to deviseimproved strategies for basin management to reducesediment inflows. River sediment loads represent akey component of the transfer of material from theland surface to the oceans, and thus of the globalgeochemical cycle. Lack of data on sediment loadsfor many rivers of the world hampers attempts toquantify these fluxes and to assess their sensitivity toglobal change. There is a need to promote both thedevelopment of sediment monitoring networks on theworld’s rivers and the standardisation of associatedmonitoring programmes to address these importantglobal questions.

To address some of these problems, ICCE hasrecently established two Task Forces: on NewMethods for Measuring Erosion and SedimentTransport, and on Standardisation and Comparison ofMethods Used for Evaluation of Sediment TransportCrossing International Borders.

ActivitiesICCE effectively straddles the divide betweenhydrology, geomorphology, civil engineering,agricultural engineering, sedimentology andgeochemistry. The Commission regularly organisessymposia and workshops, but also actively


collaborates with the other IAHS commissions, andwith other international groups and bodies, regardingmultidisciplinary approaches to hydrologicalproblems and bridging the gap between research andpractice through technology transfer to developingcountries. These include the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), the InternationalGeographical Union (IGU), the InternationalCoordinating Committee on Reservoir Sedimentation(ICCORES), the International Commission on LargeDams (ICOLD), the International Association ofSediment–Water Science (IASWS), the InternationalSoil Conservation Organization (ISCO), and theInternational Research and Training Centre in Erosionand Sedimentation (IRTCS). ICCE has played anactive role for many years to implement those aspectsof UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programmeconcerned with erosion and sediment yields.

ICCE is currently involved in the symposium onErosion Prediction in Ungauged Basins (PUB):Integrating Methods and Techniques at the XXIIIUGG General Assembly (Sapporo, 2003), part of thenew IAHS initiative on PUB. The objective is to

Recent ICCE publications include:

Modelling Soil Erosion, Sediment Transportand Closely Related Hydrological Processes(IAHS Publ. no. 249, 1998).

The Role of Erosion and Sediment Transferin Nutrient and Contaminant Transfer (IAHSPubl. no. 263, 2000).

The Structure, Function and ManagementImplications of Fluvial Sedimentary Systems(IAHS Publ. no. 276, 2002).

Erosion on steep slopes of theSikkim Himalaya (India) andcoarse sedimentation in thevalley immediately downstream

Extensive fine sedimentdeposition associated with theTeesta River as it crosses the

Ganga-Brahmaputra Plain, India

review recent developments in a wide range ofmethods and techniques that can be used tocharacterise runoff and erosion in ungauged basins,and to evaluate how to integrate the informationobtained using remote sensing, GIS, modelling andother methods into a coherent view of the ungaugedbasins (IAHS Publ. no. 279, 2003).


Snow and IceICSI, International Commission on Snow and Ice

ICSI actually predates IAHS (founded in 1922) byover a quarter of a century: it was founded as theCommission internationale des glaciers (CIG) in1894. The objectives of the CIG were to promotehistorical and scientific studies on glaciers throughoutthe world and to gather and disseminate the datathrough periodic publications and annual reports.

Research interests and publicationsOriginally, the CIG was mainly concerned withglacier movement and variations in their physicaldimensions with fluctuations in climates. In 1939 theCIG merged with the Commission of Snow, foundedin 1936, and the newly-named commission (ICSI)broadened its interests in 1948 to include all aspectsof the science of snow and ice. Since then theCommission has continued to explore innovativeresearch in the physical, geochemical and biologicaldynamics of the cryosphere. Through the efforts ofworking groups (WG), significant works have been(and continue to be) published in such different fieldsas snow mechanics, glacier mass balance techniques,isotope chemistry, nutrient dynamics of snow,hydrology of river and lake ice and ecology of snowfields. ICSI also continues the original objectives ofglacier inventory and recording changes through theWorld Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS), part ofthe Federation of Astronomical and GeophysicalServices (FAGS) under ICSI’s responsibility.

Current research and technology transferToday, ICSI not only undertakes activities of a purelyscientific exploratory nature, but also transfers andapplies scientific knowledge to the practicalmanagement and use of natural cryospheric resources.The pure science includes studying the relationshipbetween snow and climate, the interactions betweensnow and vegetation, and snowmelt modelling, whichare all related to the increasing interest in improvingcryospheric representations in climate and hydro-logical models. Other subjects of interest are thedynamics of tropical glaciers, debris-covered glaciers,extraterrestrial ice, and runoff processes in coldregions. Scientific knowledge is transferred andapplied through training courses in mass balancemeasurements of glaciers and through setting up

glacier monitoring networks. These current topics areoutlined briefly in the following paragraphs.

Snow and climateSnow cover is a part of the cryosphere, which is anintegral part of the global climate system withimportant linkages and feedbacks generated throughits influence on surface energy and moisture fluxes,precipitation, hydrology and atmospheric and oceaniccirculation. Because of its specific radiative andthermal properties, snow cover plays a major role inthe climate system. The study of snow and climate isa rapidly evolving science, with new demands fordetailed representations of snow processes to providean up-to-date understanding of snow physics and tosupport modelling of climate change scenarios. AnICSI WG on Snow and Climate is writing a state-of-the-science work on interactions between climate andsnow. Subjects include new techniques for studyingsnow–climate relationships by monitoring the extentof snow cover at continental and hemispheric scales,and recent advances in snow modelling physics torepresent snow cover and parameterisation of snowprocesses in Global Climate Models (GCMs).

Snow and vegetationRecent inter-comparisons of snow models for openand vegetated environments have shown widelydivergent results, because current parameterisationsdo not include the full range and dynamics of snowprocesses. This is important because the interactionsbetween snow and vegetation are increasinglyrecognised as an extremely important factor inregulating global climate and water supply. Thestudies of the ICSI WG on Snow and Vegetation aredeveloping a more consistent and comprehensiveapproach to representing snow–vegetationinteractions in various biomes, including the ArcticTundra and sub-Arctic Boreal Forests, Mountains andGrasslands. The subject matter includes blowingsnow processes, shrub-tundra snowmelt energetics,the dynamics of intercepted snow and snowmeltunder forest canopies, and the impacts of ecosystemstress in the guise of climatic fluctuations,deforestation, land-use change and land-usemanagement.


Snow model inter-comparisonThere is widespread use of many different types ofsnow models in various applications, such ashydrological forecasting, the structuring of globalcirculation models and avalanche prediction. Thedegree of complexity of these models varies greatly,from simple index methods to multi-layer models thatsimulate snow cover layering and texture. Thisvariability makes it possible to investigate the relativeimportance of the different processes that can betaken into account and parameterised in a snowmodel. ICSI’s WG on Snow Model Inter-comparisonuses a two-tiered approach, based on off-line inter-comparison of snow models forced by meteorologicaldata, and representing internal processes in thedifferent snow models (e.g. layering, melting-freez-ing, compaction). Defining a common methodologyto achieve the parameterisation of internal processesis a particular challenge, but a successful outcomewill provide a substantial tool to optimise snow coverrepresentation in climate models.

Tropical glaciersTropical glaciers are very sensitive indicators of lowlatitude global climate change as well as vulnerableresources of water supply in highly populated regions.The setting of homogeneous thermal conditions,where seasonality is dominated by variations in airhumidity and moisture, leads to a particular inter-action of climate and tropical glaciers. A majorchallenge for water management in low latitude, highmountain regions is that, although the 20th centuryglacier retreat has contributed to an abundant watersupply, it has also diminished the resource capacity tosupport future increases in social activities. In this

context, two ICSI WGs (on Himalayan and SouthAmerican Glaciers) have studied glacier dynamics inthese two regions, and have designed training courseson glacier mass balance measurements in theHimalayas (see inside back cover) and the Andes.ICSI also initiated and supported the publication ofthe book Tropical Glaciers as an issue of theInternational Hydrological Series (UNESCO andCambridge University Press, 2001).

The majority of glaciers in many mountain ranges,as in the Himalayas, are debris-covered. When theyretreat, they generate huge dammed lakes, which arevery fragile to basin erosion and seismic tremors.These lakes represent tremendous hazards in manypopulated valleys of the Andes and Himalayas, buttheir relationships to glacier evolution are poorlyunderstood. ICSI is evaluating the studies of debris-covered glaciers, and an ICSI-supported workshop inSeattle, USA, in 2000 comprehensively reviewed thepresent status of knowledge, generating Debris-Covered Glaciers (IAHS Publ. no. 264, 2000).

Application of scientific knowledgeTraining programmes for monitoring glacier massbalance have been held in the Himalayas by ICSITraining Contingents, incorporated into teams ofregional government organisations and universityresearchers, through UNESCO, who also supportedpublication of a training manual. A similar exercisewill take place in South America in 2003/4. Traininglocal technical personnel and establishing glaciermonitoring networks are both essential to developingdata acquisition systems, on which local managementwill have to rely in optimising use of snow and iceresources in high-mountain regions.

Tropical glaciers mayprovide almost the onlywater for fast developingsocieties during the dryseasons: Huaraz andNevado Huascarán, Peru


Water QualityICWQ, International Commission on Water Quality

ICWQ is responsible for promoting the scientificadvancement of the water quality of hydrologicalsystems, including their assessment and management.Water quality is a vast and complex topic. It embracesall phases of the hydrological cycle from precipitationinputs, through terrestrial surface water and ground-water systems, to the marine environment into whichfreshwater runoff ultimately discharges. Water qualitycan be defined by numerous physical, chemical andbiological variables, and shows complex variations inspace and time. Although not exclusively the result ofhuman impacts, very many of the water qualityproblems in the world today have arisen through theuse of water for domestic, agricultural and industrialpurposes. As a consequence, surface, ground- andcoastal waters have become polluted with a widerange of contaminants, including organic materials,nutrients, salts, acidifying compounds, heavy metals,organic micropollutants, radioactivity and sediments.

ActivitiesICWQ organises and sponsors significant inter-national and regional symposia and workshops, andcollaborates with other groups, such as the otherIAHS commissions, national and internationalscientific organisations, on subjects of joint interest.The topics covered in meetings include:– Effects of scale on interpretation and management

of sediment and water quality,– Biogeochemistry of seasonally snow-covered

catchments,– Freshwater contamination,– Hydro-ecology: riverine ecological response to

changes in hydrological regime, sedimenttransport and nutrient loading,

– Optimisation of monitoring strategies forgroundwater quantity and quality.

From time to time, ICWQ sets up working groups tofocus attention on specific issues. In recent years theyhave addressed nutrient cycling and management, andurban water quality. This work has culminated inICWQ-sponsored symposia generating several IAHSpublications (Impact of Land-Use Change on NutrientLoads from Diffuse Sources, 1999; Impacts of UrbanGrowth on Surface Water and Groundwater Quality,1999; Agricultural Effects on Ground and Surface

Waters: Research at the Edge of Science and Society,2002: IAHS Publ. nos 257, 259 and 273 respectively).

ICWQ contributes to major internationalprogrammes in hydrology, such as the IHP, includingHELP (Hydrology for Environment, Life and Policy),and addresses topics relevant to key global issues,such as those identified by the World Summit onSustainable Development (Johannesburg, 2002) andthe Third World Water Forum (Kyoto, 2003).

The World Water Vision states that deteriorationof surface water and groundwater quality and theimpact on ecosystems and biodiversity will be centralissues for sustainable water resources developmentand management in the coming decades. It also statesthat there has been insufficient investment in waterquality protection for urban and rural needs.Consequently considerable effort by NGOs, nationaland international scientific, management and policyagencies/organisations will go towards understandingand resolving water quality issues during the nextdecade.

ICWQ can serve these organisations by identifyingexperts to provide knowledge on water qualityproblems and by promoting research into criticalissues that are not yet properly understood. It hasidentified the following key water-quality issuesneeding further research and assessment.

ICWQ’s role as the 21st century unfolds will be toensure that proper attention is given to key issues,such as these, and to provide a forum for discussingthe key science involved and how to apply it to thebest effect.

Effect of water quality on human healthFreshwater, both surface water and groundwater, is animportant medium for the transport of toxins, viraland bacterial diseases and parasitic infections. Eachyear, waterborne bacterial infections account for halfof the estimated 3–5 billion episodes of diarrhoea andthe resulting 3 million deaths, mostly among children.Water quality impacts on human health areexacerbated in areas of high water stress, where thewater withdrawn annually for human use is more than40% of the water available. We need to understandbetter the relationships between water quality andquantity and their effects on human health.


Industrial garbage polluting water inLatvia. Photo by Curt Carnemark,1993. © World Bank Photo Library

Contaminant transformation and transportThe processes by which contaminants enter water-courses and are transported, ultimately to the sea, arehighly complex. In the journey of pollutants fromsource to sink there may be many stages andtransformations, including interactions betweendissolved and particulate phases involving physical,chemical and biological processes. Furthering ourknowledge of freshwater contamination thereforerequires an interdisciplinary approach.

Improving water quality monitoringApproaches to collecting water quality data needrefining to ensure that the information gathered isrelevant to management issues, as well as scientificunderstanding, and that its benefits clearly outweighthe costs of data collection. As the need to assesswater quality globally increases, it is appropriate todevelop international standards of monitoring andassessment, but at the same time to ensure thatprotocols apply in and to developing countries.

Regional water quality problems / solutionsConsiderable progress has been made in tacklingnational water quality issues, particularly in thedeveloped world. In The Netherlands, the detrimentalaccumulation of nutrients in shallow lakes (eutro-phication) has been alleviated during the last 20–30years by improving agricultural practice (reducingnutrient leaching), effluent treatment, fish stockmanipulation and cooperation between scientists andland/water managers. However, transboundary waterquality problems have not usually received the sameattention. Exceptions include the eutrophication ofthe Great Lakes in North America and the Baltic Sea,where nutrient outputs from point and non-pointsources have been reduced and water quality hasstarted to improve. Lake Victoria in eastern Africa,Lake Malawi in southern Africa, and the Aral Sea in

Central Asia are placees where transboundary waterquality is still a major problem.

Water quality and global changeUnnaturally high rates of change are likely in the 21stcentury as a consequence of human impact on, forexample, global warming and land-use modification.Global change will influence hydrology and eco-systems, which in turn will affect water quality. Inparts of the globe, hydrological extremes may becomemore acute as the climate warms. More severeflooding may mobilise and transport more finesediment into watercourses, along with nutrients andcontaminants. More acute droughts may lead to a risein river temperatures, lower oxygen levels and changefish habitats. There is a pressing need to understandand model how water quality will respond, to predictpotential harm to aquatic environments and thenameliorate them by appropriate management.

Application of new technologiesOn-going developments in tracers, remote sensingand other technologies will provide new tools withwhich to advance our scientific understanding of thenatural and anthropogenic factors influencing waterquality, and also to improve our ability to manage andcontrol this aspect of water resources.

Support for training in developing countriesWater quality problems are particularly severe indeveloping countries. In Latin America less than 2%of sewage is treated, while in Mexico 90% of waste-water treatment plants do not work. Many politiciansview water problems in terms of quantity rather thanquality, and in many developing countries there is aneed to strengthen both institutions and policies inwater quality management, regulation and protection.Attention needs to be focused on the best ways topromote capacity building in the water quality sector.


Water Resources Systems ICWRS, International Commission on Water Resources Systems

Its title differentiates ICWRS from the other IAHSCommissions, which are named after parts of thehydrological cycle, specific characteristics of itscomponents or to methodologies. A “resource” isdefined as a source of supply or support, and water isan essential natural source of life and health forhumankind and the environment. Resulting from thisholistic understanding of the term “resource”, ICWRSpromotes research and development on the integrationof all phases of water resource protection, planning,design, management, operation and utilisation.The range of scientific interests represented byICWRS also relates to the term “system” in its name.A system is a regularly interacting or interdependentgroup of items forming a unified whole. Waterresources are a distinguished example of interactingbodies under the influence of related forces. Againthe approach needed is a holistic one. Responsibilityfor a system is shared among its components.Resulting from this double integration, ICWRS topicstoday cover a wide range of scientific interests with acommon focal point that can be described asIntegrated Water Resources Management (IWRM).

Integrated Water Resources ManagementThe modern concept of Integrated Water ResourcesManagement considers two basic categories:– the natural system, which is of critical importance

for resource availability and quality, and– the human system, which fundamentally

determines the resource use, waste production andpollution of the resource.

An integrated approach must balance consideration ofboth categories and their interdependencies, and thedifferent internal relationships within each category.

Example of interdependenceLand and water management provides an importantlink between natural and human systems. Here anintegrated approach is needed that considers land-usedevelopments and the role played by vegetation cover(including crop selection) in influencing the physicaldistribution and quality of water. Land-use develop-ment has to be considered as part of the overallplanning and management of water resources, as ithas a strong influence on the natural system.

Examples of the internal relationshipsExamples of particular interest in water managementinclude the following:– Relationships between surface water and ground-

water are essential for water management, as largeproportions of the world’s population depend ongroundwater for water supply. Widespread use ofagro-chemicals and pollution from other non-pointsources, strongly interlinked with infiltration, posesignificant threats to groundwater quality. Watermanagers are forced to consider links betweensurface water and groundwater to ensuresustainable use of groundwater resources.

– Human demand entails the development ofappropriate quantities of water of suitable quality.

– Consideration of quantity and quality in waterresources management is essential in IWRM. Therelationships between water quality and waterquantity cannot be neglected, since non-pointpollution is related to water fluxes. It is oftennecessary to consider pollution of surface andground waters as originating from human activitiesand transported by runoff and groundwaterrecharge into our water resources.

– Within the human system, relationships andinterlinkages are caused mainly by multi-site andmulti-objective water utilisation. The economicdemand for water by single user groups usuallyhas to be harmonised with the needs of the wholesociety. Transboundary water resources add aspatial component within the human system ofwater resource utilisation, and different upstreamand downstream water-related interests causesignificant problems.

This list of necessities for integrated approacheswithin the water management could easily beextended. Clearly, a new approach is needed in orderto find a balance between society’s demand for waterand the restoration of waters as part of natureconservation in the new century.

ICWRS is dedicated to this task and theintegration challenge is interpreted very widely,linking water quantity and quality, atmospheric/surface water and groundwater, land-use and watermanagement, small-scale sub-catchments and large-scale main river basin systems, ecosystems and


economic/social development, water supply and waterconservation, urban and rural water users, poorcommunities and better-off users, bio-physical andsocio-economic information, statutory watergovernance and participation by catchment stake-holders, routine management and responses tohydrological extremes, technology application andcapacity-building/advocacy.

Hydrological sciences have to consider the fourcharacteristics of a water resource jointly:– quantity,– quality,– condition of the aquatic habitat, and– condition of the aquatic biota.The ICWRS builds on, and bridges, the separatedisciplines, promotes opportunities for cross-fertilisation among them and challenges them onmatters of internal focus and priority in thesustainability/systems context of modern watermanagement concepts.

Since water management depends on the human aswell as on the natural system, ICWRS pays specialattention to the human factor. Here the Commissionconsiders the social context of water: balancing foodproduction, human health and social developmentwith resource protection; understanding and using thelinks between water and energy, water and policy, andwater and civilisation; engaging public perceptions ofsustainability; exploring links between hydrologicalextremes and their impacts on human communitiesand vice versa.

Integrating outputs from different disciplinesrelevant to the sustainability/systems approach

requires a technological and conceptual ability tobridge the gaps between disciplines, in order to makethe different types and scales of information and datainter-operable and to reinterpret information that liesin the overlap between the abiotic and the biotic sub-domains of hydrology and water resources.

IWRM is not only an engineering task based oninterdisciplinary planning. It also starts with newthinking about the role of water as the most essentialcomponent in the natural and human system, aboutthe ecological, economic and social effects of watermanagement, the needs of today, the sustainability ofour proposed solutions and the efforts of futuregenerations to cope with inherited water problems.

This new understanding of water managementmust be transmitted in appropriate structural and non-structural solutions, which will have to integrate andbalance the needs of many different groups of stake-holders. By devoting itself to this scientific task,ICWRS will ensure that the important role played byIAHS over the past 80 years will continue.

Recent publications from symposiaorganised by ICWRS are:

Regional Management of Water Resources(IAHS Publ. no. 268, 2001).

Integrated Water Resources Management(IAHS Publ. no. 272, 2001).

The Möhne Dam, inthe Ruhr region ofGermany. Photographby Ruhrverband,Essen, Germany(archive Ruhrverband)


Remote SensingICRS, International Commission on Remote Sensing

Remote sensing has been defined as the science andart of obtaining information about an object, area orphenomenon through the analyses of data acquired bya sensor that is not in direct contact with the target ofinvestigation. ICRS recognises that the science ofhydrology is data-limited and that the understandingof hydrological processes may benefit greatly fromremotely sensed data and from improved spatial dataorganisation through the use of GIS (geographicalinformation systems).

The applications of remote sensing and GIS inhydrology are becoming more important, and thesetechniques have the ability (a) to measure or managespatial, spectral, and temporal information, and (b) toprovide data on the state of the Earth’s surface. Futureadvances in hydrological remote sensing and GIS arelikely to depend heavily on improved technologicaland scientific capabilities.

The state of the science of remote sensing inhydrology was presented at an ICRS symposium onRemote Sensing and Hydrology 2000 in Santa Fe,USA (IAHS Publ. no. 267, 2001). More recently,ICRS activities have resulted in a series of co-sponsored workshops and articles in a special issue ofHydrological Processes (2002).

Use of Remote SensingThe potential of remote sensing for providinginformation to hydrologists and water resourcespractitioners has been recognised since the launch ofthe first ERTS-1 satellite in 1972. Since that time,hydrologists and other scientists have developedalgorithms to extract hydrological information fromremotely sensed data and to develop new, or adaptexisting, hydrological methods capable of makingefficient use of this new information. The increasingnumber of satellite and airborne platforms along withadvancements in computer and software technologymake it possible to evaluate and quantify largenumbers of drainage basin physical characteristicsand state variables.

The rapid growth of population in many countries,together with a generally increasing standard ofliving, is increasing demands on water for irrigation,industry and urban water supply and decreasing thequantity and the quality of available water. It is now

well understood that positive benefit/cost ratios canbe realised in using remotely sensed data inhydrology and water resources management. Theseestimates rely on savings derived from floodprevention and improved planning of irrigation andhydroelectric production.

In most cases, remote sensing data are used toassess the hydrological state of a basin or region byestimating various hydrological state variables (in theliquid, solid or gas phase) and/or hydrologicallysignificant physiographic variables that can influencehydrological processes or responses. The simplest ofthese is the use of remote sensing imagery to identifyitems such as snow-covered areas, surface waterextent or sediment plumes.

The second class involves obtaining data such asland cover, geological features or other hydrologicalvariables and parameters through interpretation andclassification of remotely sensed data. The third classinvolves the use of digital data to estimatehydrological state parameters directly. This isnormally achieved through correlation of knownhydrometric data with remotely sensed data orapplication of electro-optical models. In most remotesensing studies pertaining to hydrology, land-use data(class 2) are primarily used in conjunction withhydrological models.

DevelopmentsOver the years, research and applications of remotesensing within hydrology have embraced a variety oftopics, from snow, permafrost and ice to soilmoisture, flood mapping and wetland detection, aswell as numerous studies examining water quality,bathymetry and suspended sediment concentrations.

Despite their promise, the use remote sensingtechniques is still not exploited to the full bypractising hydrologists: this represents a challenge forscientists and engineers. Research in the applicationof remote sensing in hydrology will continue as moreuses of imagery are realised and as more satelliteplatforms and sensors are added to the existingcomplement. Changes in sensor characteristics andresolutions will afford new opportunities tohydrologists. In the short term, significant advancesin hydrological sciences and real-time water


management are likely as a result of the recentimplementation of the Earth Observing System (EOS).

The recent launch of the EOS AM-1 satellite holdsspecial promise for hydrologists, since it contains anarray of sensors that will permit simultaneousmeasurements of various atmospheric and surfacecomponents of the hydrological cycle. It startedcollecting imagery in January 2000. Successors to theAM-1 are to be launched so that scientists will be ableto access a continuous data set for at least an 18-yearperiod. The recent successful launch of the EuropeanEnvisat satellite will also provide a unique view of thewater cycle from space.

As well as the expansion of the type andcombination of sensors, spatial resolution of theimagery will continue to improve. DigitalGlobe’sQuickBird commercial satellite now offers the highestpublicly available resolution with 0.61 m panchromaticand 2.4 m multiband images. The vast potential of suchhigh resolution “imagery” remains largely untapped. Asseen in the figure, remote and inaccessible sites can bemonitored with a number of satellites highlightingdifferent spectral response (Landsat and IKONOS), aswell as texture and dielectric response (Radarsat) forsurface water delineation, vegetation and soil moistureestimates. Elevation information is also now derivedremotely using airborne platforms such as LiDAR.

If remote sensing is truly to be effective in watermanagement and hydrological applications,advancement in understanding of the electro-magneticinteraction with the hydrosphere and crysophere is acritical factor. The hydrologist’s view of the world is asa complex nonlinear system, and only remote sensingoffers repeatable, global and continuous observationsof the state of the Earth. The use of remote sensing insolving previously daunting hydrological problems,such as flow prediction from ungauged basins (PUB),is now a very real possibility. ICRS is committed tothis geo-spatial view of the water cycle and encouragesresearch and development in this field of study.

A wetland basin in the Peace-Athabasca Delta, Canada,illustrating a multi-sensor approach for hydrology. Thewetland has been captured with Landsat TM (30mresolution), IKONOS (4m resolution) and Radarsat S2(30m resolution), and by airborne scanning LiDAR(gridded into 4m cells). The image subset shows thereflectance and backscatter over:(A) dry land covered by vegetation, (B) standing waterbeneath willows (no leaves), (C) open water, (D) willows(dry), and (E) grasses and sedges (dry). Only the near-infrared channel is shown for the Landsat and IKONOSimages. Image texture, wetness and vegetation type,and elevation from LiDAR, are readily available forhydrological analysis.

A

LandsatB

C

D

E

D

EIKONOS

RadarsatS2

LiDAR

E


Atmosphere–Soil–VegetationICASVR, International Commission on Atmosphere–Soil–Vegetation Relations

As its name implies, the International Committee onAtmosphere–Soil–Vegetation Relations (ICASVR)concerns itself with the linkages of the land surface ofthe earth and its interactions with the atmosphere.There are several continuing challenges in securing amore comprehensive assessment of these couplings,addressing the so-called “vertical flux question”.

The period from the late 1980s into the 1990s wasan important benchmark in the development ofrealistic land surface atmospheric simulations. Withthe advent of increasingly sophisticated atmosphericmodels (for numerical weather prediction, climatesimulation, and transport research) as well as majorland surface experiments (e.g. FIFE, HAPEX) camethe need to better understand, parameterise and modelthe linkages joining the dynamics of the land surfaceand of the atmosphere. At the same time, hydrologicalsimulations were rapidly gaining in sophistication,making extensive use of spatially-distributed data sets(e.g. high resolution digital elevation and remotesensing imagery) and more accurately depicting thedynamics of soil water and plant canopies, eitherthrough deterministic or statistical approaches.

At about this time, a general recognition emergedwithin IAHS that, although activities related to thespecialised sub-disciplines of the water sciences werebeing coordinated well through the Association,coordination across closely allied fields was lacking.One particularly important research arena, wherecoordination would be of obvious advantage, had todo with soil–vegetation–atmosphere interactions.Indeed, a proposal made to the IAHS Bureau(Vancouver, 1987) initiated a new commission,ICASVR. In some sense ICASVR joined abrotherhood of scientific organisations, withcommittees conceived at more-or-less the same time.

These resided in the International Geosphere–Biosphere Programmes of Biospheric Aspects of theHydrological Cycle (BAHC), and in the InternationalSatellite Land Surface Climatology Project (ISLSCP)of the World Climate Research Programme.Collaborations of various sorts developed betweenthese groups, including participation in joint fieldexplorations, development of models and data sets,and publication of mutually relevant results.

Research interestsFrom the start, the interests of ICASVR have spannedseveral areas that continue to develop rapidly today:– Scaling hydrological behaviour from point to

larger domains;– Development of spatial aggregation rules;– Interpretation of remote sensing data to derive

land surface properties and parameters, and toquantify land–atmosphere water and energyfluxes;

– Quantification of the role that spatial hetero-geneity in soil wetness and vegetative cover playsin prompting feedbacks with the atmosphere;

– Identification of the role of dynamic vegetation,either in the short term (e.g. crop growth andsenescence) or longer term (e.g. greenhousewarming–vegetation feedbacks);

– Development and analysis of the behaviour oflinked SVAT–atmosphere models, either withinGCM and/or mesoscale models;

– Testing land surface schemes for consistency in abroader context (i.e. large-scale drainage basins).

ContributionsICASVR’s first major contribution was convening asymposium at the XXth IUGG General Assembly(Vienna, 1991), with subsequent publication ofHydrological Interactions between Atmosphere, Soiland Vegetation (IAHS Publ. no. 204, 1991). In 1993 itjoined with IGBP-BAHC to produce IAHS Publ. no.212, Exchange Processes at the Land Surface for aRange of Space and Time Scales, a wide-rangingvolume encompassing nearly all of the ICASVRthematic issues. At the IUGG General Assembly inBirmingham (1999), ICASVR developed acommuniqué on the documented decline of watersciences data sets, released to 40 000 geophysicists asthe publication Eos-AGU Transactions 82(5), 54–58.The latest volume Soil–Vegetation–AtmosphereTransfer Schemes and Large-Scale HydrologicalModels (IAHS Publ. no. 270, 2001) was produced fora symposium at Maastricht.

This most recent volume, while indicative of itscore interests in SVATs, is also emblematic of thedirection that ICASVR may ultimately take in future.


It specifically explores the application of the land–atmosphere schemes in a much broader setting,including their use in rainfall–runoff modelling, dataassimilation, applications of remote sensing, links torunoff routing schemes, and parameter estimation oflarge-scale hydrological simulations.

Work remains to be done to link water and energyto the constituent cycles, as for sediment, carbon andbiogeochemistry. These issues are increasinglyintegrative in their perspective, and it is worthwhile

From this ...

to this ...

to postulate that the effort will expand further intointegrated river basin management, water resourceassessments, and other applications more directlyrelevant to society. In particular, it is not hard toimagine the conjunctive use of state-of-the-art SVATsin improved weather prediction, impact studiesassociated with extreme rainfall (flooding anddrought), and high resolution mapping of sustainedand episodic water stress.

These are the challenges ahead.

High resolution mapping of global water availability and use. Reprinted with permission from Vörösmarty etal. (2000), Science 289, 284–288. © 2000 American Association for the Advancement of Science

Components of a Soil Vegetation Atmosphere Transfer (SVAT) Model

Reprinted from Bolle (1993,IAHS Publ. no. 212), basedupon sketches by Dickinson& Henderson Sellers


TracersICT, International Commission on Tracers

The International Commission on Tracers (ICT) isone of the youngest commissions within IAHS. It wasestablished at the IUGG Assembly in Vienna 1991.Unlike commissions established earlier, ICT is amethodologically based commission that cuts acrossall other commissions.

Before the 1950s, applications of tracers were rarein all disciplines of science. Then, step by step,researchers discovered the potential of this method,which nature had found long before: e.g. dogs usetheir own tracers to mark their territory and insectsuse pheromones with great success. By the end of the1980s hydrologists had found various tracersubstances and tools for analysis and interpretation,but still the number of researchers dealing seriouslywith tracers was rather limited. Hence there was aneed to promote the dissemination of tracer methodsamongst the entire hydrological community, whichled to the foundation of ICT.

Since then the use of environmental (naturallyoccurring) and artificial (intentionally injected)tracers has permeated the various sub-fields ofhydrological sciences. The number and quality ofpublications has increased remarkably, and so has theuse of tracers as tools for water resources assessment.ICT seeks to promote tracers further for basic andapplied research.

ICT is responsible for the advancement andapplication of artificial and natural tracers inhydrology, for developing and improving themethodological framework of tracer techniques andfor extending these methods within the hydrologicalsciences. ICT supports the integration of tracerapproaches throughout hydrology by technologytransfer from research to operational use.

The particular usefulness of water tracingtechniques is due to the fact that the tracing of waterallows a direct insight into the dynamics of surfaceand subsurface water flux. Tracer techniques are auseful tool in understanding the transport processes,phase changes (evaporation, condensation,sublimation) and the genesis of water quality. Tracertechniques are particularly useful in arid and semiaridregions for quantifying groundwater and vadose zonewater movement. Tracer methods have become amajor calibration and validation tool in catchment

Injection of an artificial tracer into a river to studythe dispersion processes during inflow to a lake


results and the state-of-the-art of research findings tothe hydrological science community. ICT participatedin the development of the IAEA/UNESCO long-terminter-agency Joint International Isotopes in HydrologyProgramme (JIIHP). It has also been a leading IAHSCommission in the development of the IAHSinitiative Prediction in Ungauged Basins (PUB).

These related programmes and the ICT philosophyinstilled into each of them are considered to be amongthe chief successes of the Commission over the pastdecade.

Recent publications from symposiaorganised by ICT include:

Tracer Technologies for HydrologicalSystems (IAHS Publ. no. 229, 1995).

Application of Tracers in Arid ZoneHydrology (IAHS Publ. no. 232, 1995).

Integrated Methods in CatchmentHydrology—Tracer, Remote Sensing andNew Hydrometric Techniques (IAHS Publ.no. 258, 1999).

Tracers and Modelling in Hydrogeology(IAHS Publ. no. 262, 2000).

Use of afluorescent tracerto study dispersionprocesses in amountain lake

modelling and in the definition of runoff generationprocesses. Tracer approaches can be extremely usefulin assessment of groundwater–surface waterinteractions, dating of waters, quantifying water–rockinteractions and evaluating water resourcevulnerability.

The use of tracers has considerably changed theidentification of the different runoff components.Runoff generation processes are among the mostimportant processes in catchment hydrology, andmodelling them is improving considerably thanks totracer methods. Understanding where water goeswhen it rains, water and chemical species residencetimes and subsurface flow paths is crucial forcatchment modelling and the quantification of soluteand contaminant transport. In recent years, tracermethods, combined with hydrometric measurements,have proved to be effective for identifying runoffgeneration mechanisms in headwater catchments.

ICT also discharges its responsibilities throughextensive cooperation with the other IAHSCommissions, and with other organisations, such asthe International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA),UNESCO/IHP, the International Association of TracerHydrology, the International Association of Hydro-geologists (IAH), and other groups within thehydrological community. In the relatively short timesince it began in 1991, ICT has organised or co-sponsored more than 15 international and regionalsymposia and workshops that have disseminated


The new IAHS initiative — PUBPrediction in Ungauged Basins

Welcome to PUB!PUB (Prediction in Ungauged Basins) is a uniquescientific endeavour that IAHS has conceived,initiated and is implementing as its focus for thepresent decade. PUB invites participation byeveryone interested in and/or in need of PUB sciencesand products. The overall aim of PUB is to developthe hydrological sciences so that basin hydrology canbe predicted using the limited information availablefor any basin, and to reduce the uncertainty associatedwith such prediction. At the same time PUB has asocietal mission to provide the necessary hydrologicalinformation, especially discharge data, for ungaugedor poorly gauged basins where those data are urgentlyneeded.

The first aim will be addressed in a long-termperspective by accumulating the necessary sciencethrough observational experiments, theoreticalanalyses and syntheses, and model developments. Thesecond aim will be approached in a short-termframework by assembling all the available knowledgeand technology to meet the urgent needs.

How did it start?The idea of PUB emerged from an IAHS StrategicScience Discussion conducted over the Internetduring September–November 2000 and May–June2001, which involved many hydrologists with noprevious association with IAHS. PUB was one ofmany topics proposed during the discussion.However, as soon as the idea of focusing on ungaugedbasins emerged, many people supported itenthusiastically: there was a remarkable convergencein opinions. PUB was then formally proposed as anIAHS initiative at the IAHS Bureau meeting in July2001 and was accepted unanimously. In March 2002,a preparatory PUB Workshop was held in Kofu,Japan. The draft science plan of PUB was compiledand endorsed by the IAHS Bureau in June 2002,leading to the PUB Kick-off Workshop held inBrasilia in November 2002.

Organisation of PUBAt the Brasilia kick-off meeting, the PUB ScientificSteering Group (SSG) was formed and it was agreedto set up a PUB Strategic Advisory Group (SAG). The

SSG is now developing the complete PUB scienceplan around the themes listed below. The SAG iscurrently being formed. Its responsibility is to reviewand advise the activities of the SSG and to developthe overall PUB strategy, especially links with relatedprogrammes. The societal mission, including capacitybuilding, is also a SAG responsibility.

Links with related programmesSome encouraging links are developing with theleading hydrological programmes. The 15th Inter-Governmental Council of the UNESCO InternationalHydrological Programme (IHP) passed a resolution inJune 2002 welcoming the PUB initiative. The Councilagreed to invite the national IHP committees to takepart in PUB activities and to “recommend the IHP-VI,FRIEND, JIIHP, HELP (Hydrology, Environment,Life and Policy Programme), WWAP and other IHP-related programmes to cooperate closely with theIAHS PUB initiative in jointly organising scientificmeetings, executing capacity building programmesand utilising the developed technology in theimplementation of the respective programmes”. PUBis going to establish PUB-HELP basins as part of thecollaboration between these two programmes.

At the 26th GEWEX (Global Energy and WaterCycle Experiments Program) SSG held in Bangkok,Thailand in January 2003, IAHS PUB was invited totake part in GEWEX WRAP (Water ResourcesApplication Programme) tasks to transform theGEWEX research products into water resourcesmanagement information.

PUB will also collaborate with, and contribute to,the Coordinated Enhanced Observing Period (CEOP),the Model Parameter Estimation Experiment(MOPEX) and the Hydrology and Water ResourcesProgramme (HWRP) of WMO, among others.

Why is PUB happening now?The hydrological prediction of ungauged basins hasbeen an ultimate goal of hydrology since it began. Ifsatisfactory hydrological prediction in ungaugedbasins became possible, it would mean that hydrologywas complete in that area of the science and that nofurther research would be necessary. Why then are weaddressing the challenge of PUB now?


There are two good reasons: needs and readiness.We are faced with a major water crisis that hasemerged as a result of population growth, increase inwater demand, environmental degradation andclimate change. Increasing water shortages,intensifying flood hazards, and unseen butprogressive groundwater contamination, are examples

of the problems. Developmental and efficient watermanagement needs are pressing all over the world.However, there are many basins worldwide wherehydrological data (the basis of any watermanagement) is lacking. There are numerousungauged or poorly gauged basins. This is especiallytrue in developing countries where data are urgentlyneeded to enable water resources to be developed andmanaged. It is the societal mission of hydrologists toprovide them with the data: we have to demonstratewhat hydrological sciences can do for society.

At the same time, we are now equipped with wide-ranging knowledge and a suite of technologies toprovide the data. We have advanced understanding ofthe various components of hydrological processes,modelling techniques and advanced observingtechnologies, including various remote sensingdevices. It is time to integrate them to provide thedata required and to address the challenge of furtherdevelopment of hydrological understanding.

It is not an objective of PUB to replace groundobservations. PUB is a scientific project aiming toreduce the uncertainty in the estimates based on theavailable information. It is regrettable thathydrological networks are declining all over theworld, as summarised in the often-repeated remarkthat “hydrological data are a newly endangered

The Elephant, as described by blind men in thewell-known Indian legend, has been adopted asthe PUB symbol because PUB means differentthings to different people. However, only theintegration of all aspects of hydrological sciencewill provide a solution to PUB. Illustrationreproduced by permission of Jason Hunt ©1999

The seamless merger of hydrology with meteorology and water resources.Reprinted from Takeuchi (2000), Hydrol. Sci. J. 46(6), p. 880.


species”. PUB emphasises just how valuable groundobservation is for the purpose of reducing predictionuncertainty.

ObjectivesPUB is a policy-relevant hydrological science activitywith the following broad community objectives:– To advance our ability to predict with confidence

the fluxes of water out of drainage basinsworldwide in areas of societal and ecologicalrelevance, in different biomes and hydro-climaticregions, and to verify predictions with data fromselected basins;

– To advance the scientific foundations ofhydrology, including understanding the climaticand landscape controls on the natural variability ofhydrological processes, and the impacts of human-induced alterations to climate and landscape;

– To increase the awareness of the value of data,especially of the measurement of hydrologicalvariables, for the management of water resourcesaround the world, and to demonstrate theimportance of existing gauging systems and theneed for targeted gauging to enhance currentlyinadequate, or nonexistent, data sources;

– To advance technological capability around theworld, so that predictions in ungauged basins arefirmly based on local knowledge of the climaticand landscape controls on hydrological processes,along with access to the latest data sources;

– Actively to promote capacity building activities inthe development of appropriate scientificknowledge and technology for areas andcommunities where they are needed.

The central themes of the PUB initiative areheterogeneity and predictive uncertainty. PUB isgeared towards developing methodologies andsystems for assessing the uncertainty in predictions ofhydrological variables at ungauged river sites, whicharise from uncertainties in model parameters and data(climatic, physiographic, land-use, etc.), choice ofmodel structure, information transfer (from gauged toungauged catchments) mechanisms, and targetedmethods to constrain and reduce the uncertainties.

The PUB Scientific Steering Group comprises12 young hydrologists: Stewart Franks,Harouna Karambiri, Venkat Lakshmi,Xu Liang, Jeff McDonnell, Mario Mendiondo,Taikan Oki, John Pomeroy, Daniel Schertzer,Stefan Uhlenbrook and Murugesu Sivapalan(chair).

The Strategic Advisory Group’s initialmembership is Pierre Hubert, Jim Wallace,Lars Gottschalk, Jim Shuttleworth andKuniyoshi Takeuchi (chair).

PUB science agendaThe science agenda of PUB is currently underdiscussion but it is very likely that it will be organisedaround the following scientific activities:1. Exploration of ways to characterise the heterogene-

ity of landscape properties and climatic inputs;2. Development of a general model framework for

heterogeneity and predictive uncertainty;3. Conducting model inter-comparisons in selected

gauged basins (PUB-HELP basins) to investigateuncertainty resulting from the choice of modelstructure;

4. Investigation of methods for efficient assimilationof gauged and/or remotely sensed data in order toconstrain predictive uncertainty;

5. Promotion of process studies and field experimentsto advance process understanding andconceptualisations with the aim of reducingpredictive uncertainty;

6. Advancing our understanding and predictions ofthe effects of hydroclimatological variability andchange;

7. Transforming the available global researchproducts into hydrological information useful forlocal and regional water resources management.

Visit http://www.cig.ensmp.fr/~iahs formore information about PUB.


IAHSPublicationsPart of the IAHS mission is to disseminate the results ofhydrological research and practice worldwide. IAHSPress, the publishing arm of the Association, facilitatesthis by producing and distributing publicationsincluding Hydrological Sciences Journal (HSJ), theseries of Proceedings and Reports (Red Books) and theSpecial Publications series. Brief descriptions of severalof these are provided here. Details of all IAHSpublications are provided in the 2003 Catalogue ofPublications, available from IAHS Press and at the website http://www.cig.ensmp.fr/~iahs. Abstracts of papersin all volumes (HSJ and books) published since 1999are available on the web site.

IAHS members in financially disadvantagedcountries receive 80% discount on books and HSJsubscriptions. All other members receive 25% discounton purchases. Discounts are subject to the minimumorder charge of £10.00.

After covering production costs, revenues raised byIAHS Press are used to support IAHS activities,including distribution of IAHS publications on behalf ofthe Task Force for Developing Countries.

Books and subscriptions to HSJ are available forpurchase only from IAHS Press. Please contactFrances Watkins ([email protected]) aboutHSJ and Jill Gash ([email protected]) for books,at IAHS Press, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology,Wallingford, Oxfordshire, OX10 8BB, UK.

Hydrological Sciences Journal (HSJ)

Editor: Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz

HSJ is the official journal of the Association and is oneof the oldest and the most international of all the water-related journals. It currently ranks fifth in the WaterResources section (50 journals) of the ISI JournalsCitation Index, with an impact factor of 1.22 (ISICitations Index, 2001). Examples of recent paperspublished in HSJ are:

Global ENSO–streamflow teleconnection, streamflowforecasting and interannual variability. F. H. S. Chiew &T. A. McMahon 47(3), 505–522 (2002).The Hurst phenomenon and fractional Gaussian noise madeeasy. D. Koutsoyiannis 47(4), 573–595 (2002).Ecohydrology—a challenging multidisciplinary researchperspective. A. Porporato & I. Rodriguez-Iturbe 47(5),811–822 (2002).

Canadian streamflow trend detection: impacts of serial andcross-correlation. Sheng Yue, P. Pilon & R. Phinney 48(1),51–64 (2003).Ancient dams, settlement archaeology and Buddhistpropagation in central India: the hydrological background.J. Shaw & J. V. Sutcliffe 48(2), (2003).

The most recent special issue of HSJ is:Towards Integrated Water Resources Management forSustainable DevelopmentGuest Editor: Bhupendra Soni

The eight papers assembled in this Special Issue of HSJillustrate a multitude of water-related problems that arerepresentative of those in developing countries. The paperswere selected from presentations at the InternationalConference on Integrated Water Resources Management forSustainable Development (New Delhi, 2000).

HSJ 47 Special Issue (2002) ISBN 1-901502-91-0; 108+iv pp;£28.00

IAHS BooksHydro-ecology: Linking Hydrology and Aquatic Ecologyedited by M. C. Acreman

Hydro-ecology brings together hydrological, hydraulic,geomorphic and biological/ecological knowledge to under-stand and predict the response of freshwater biota andecosystems to variation of abiotic factors such as flows andwater quality. IAHS held its first hydro-ecology workshop—Riverine Ecological Response to Changes in HydrologicalRegime, Sediment Transport and Nutrient Loading—inBirmingham, UK, and this volume contains a selection of thework presented there.

Publ. no. 266 (2001) ISBN 1-901502-41-4; 162+xiv pp; £33.00

The Extremes of the Extremes: Extraordinary Floodsedited by Á. Snorrason, H. P. Finnsdóttir & M. E. Moss

Extreme floods are among the most destructive forces ofnature, and there is a perception that they are occurring withhigher frequency now than in the past which is cause forinternational concern and calls for an understanding of thecircumstances that might generate such disastrous events, andwas the motive for the Reykjavík symposium on extraordinaryfloods, The Extremes of the Extremes. This publication is anoutcome of that meeting.

Publ. no. 271 (2002) ISBN 1-901502-66-X; 394+xiv pp; £60.00

Impact of Human Activity on Groundwater Dynamicsedited by H. Gehrels, N. E. Peters, E. Hoehn, K. Jensen,C. Leibundgut, J. Griffioen, B. Webb & W. J. Zaadnoordijk

Human activities are intricately linked to the evolution anddynamics of groundwater quantity and quality. Given thealarming rate of land-use change globally, it is important to


understand the linkages between land-use change andgroundwater dynamics. The impact on groundwater dynamicsand resources of human activities (including urbanisation,land-use change and groundwater contamination) isevaluated. Techniques of adequate impact assessment areinvestigated, such as methods for quantifying recharge, forgeochemical characterisation of aquifers, and for modellingcontamination transport.

Publ. no. 269 (2001) ISBN 1-901502-56-2; 369+x pp; £59.50

Groundwater Quality: Natural and EnhancedRestoration of Groundwater Pollutionedited by S. F. Thornton & S. E. Oswald

The international GQ2001 conference (Sheffield, UK),provided a forum for discussion of the newest advances inresearch on natural and enhanced restoration of pollutants insoils and groundwater. Particular themes covered in thisvolume are site characterisation and remediation strategiesusing state-of-the-art techniques, field-scale demonstration oftreatment technologies, fundamental understanding of naturalattenuation processes in the subsurface and their applicationin remediation design, reactive barrier design andperformance, and reactive transport modelling of naturalattenuation processes.

Publ. no. 275 (2002) ISBN 1-901502-86-4; 604+xii pp; £82.50

Agricultural Effects on Ground and Surface Waters:Research at the Edge of Science and Societyedited by J. Steenvoorden, F. Claessen & J. Willems

This volume includes the Wageningen Statement, agreed bythe participants at the international conference of the samename in The Netherlands, which contains recommendations togovernments and international organisations. The themes –risk assessment by monitoring, model development, anddecision support studies – are considered at levels wherepolicy development and water management take place: theagricultural production unit, the regional and the nationallevel. Attention is given to alternative approaches to policymaking and communication between the parties: farmers,policy makers, interest groups in society, and scientists.

Publ. no. 273 (2002) ISBN 1-901502-76-7; 414+x pp; £63.50

Integrated Water Resources Managementedited by M. A. Mariño & S. P. Simonovic

As this volume shows, a new framework is emerging forwater resources management based on the principle ofintegrated watershed management, described as “a form ofcoordinated management of land and water resources within aregion, with the objectives of preventing land degradation,protecting the quality of the freshwater resource, protectingbiodiversity, and continuing sustainable use, within a contextwhich includes genuine community/government partnershipsand recognition of socio-economic objectives”.


The Structure, Function and Management Implicationsof Fluvial Sedimentary Systemsedited by F. J. Dyer, M. C. Thoms & J. M. Olley

This volume contains the proceedings of a symposium atAlice Springs, Australia, as a contribution to the UNESCOIHP-V Project 2.1: Vegetation, Land Use and Erosion. Thepapers cover a wide range of topics pertaining to fluvialsedimentary systems, recognising their role and how they aremanaged for the health of riverine systems. Balancing theneeds of humans with those of riverine ecosystems requiresinformation about how fluvial sedimentary systems impact onriverine ecology. Floodplains have a crucial role as temporarystorages of water, sediment and nutrients, and any ecologicalmanagement must address this.


Debris-Covered Glaciersedited by M. Nakawo, C. F. Raymond & A. Fountain

The Workshop on Debris-Covered Glaciers (Seattle), aimed atsynthesising current understanding about debris-coveredglaciers and rock glaciers. Despite being relatively common,debris-covered glaciers have not been well studied, yet themelt rate of the ice under the debris is a fundamental variablethat is crucial for mass balance calculations, response toclimatic variations and for water runoff. Current debate on theorigin of rock glaciers and their possible genetic connectionto debris-covered glaciers highlights fundamental issuesconcerning debris transport and energy balances.

Publ. no. 264 (2000) ISBN 1-901502-31-7; 288+viii pp; £44.00

Interactions between the Cryosphere, Climate andGreenhouse Gasesedited by M. Tranter, R. Armstrong, E. Brun, G. Jones, M. Sharp& M. Williams

Snow cover distribution on both continental and hemisphericscales, and the feedback mechanisms between snowdistribution, recent trends in climatic variation and majorclimatic events such as El Niño are considered. Advances inthe modelling of snow-cover evolution and snowmelt, basedon knowledge of processes for snow redistribution, energyexchange and snow metamorphism, are presented. Howchanges in snow- and ice-cover distribution may impact onchemical weathering reactions and perturb atmospheric CO

2concentrations, and the isotope chemistry (δ18O) of presentand past precipitation and the role of snow cover in theemissions of N

2O from soil are also discussed.

Publ. no. 256 (1999) ISBN 1-901502-90-2; 282+x pp; £42.50

Soil–Vegetation–Atmosphere Transfer Schemes andLarge-Scale Hydrological Modelsedited by A. J. Dolman, A. J. Hall, M. L. Kavvas, T. Oki &J. W. Pomeroy

Several key issues in soil–vegetation–atmosphere transfer(SVAT) models are poorly parameterised or not well enough


understood. Current SVAT schemes include complexdescriptions of the physical mechanisms governing landsurface processes requiring large numbers of parameterscontrolling the vertical fluxes. The rationale is that improvedprocess representation will result in parameters which areeasier to measure or estimate, and in improved modelperformance and robustness, but this is not necessarily so.The papers in this volume address these issues.

Publ. no. 270 (2001) ISBN 1-901502-61-9; 372+x pp; £59.50

Remote Sensing and Hydrology 2000edited by M. Owe, K. Brubaker, J. Ritchie & A. Rango

The proceedings of this international symposium in Santa Fe,USA, represent the state of the science at the beginning of the21st century: 125 papers detail many operational applicationsas well as attempts to exploit more varied parts of the electro-magnetic spectrum. They cover remote sensing aspects of:precipitation, snow and ice, large area experiments, evapo-transpiration, radar applications, microwave soil moisture,GIS, general hydrology, wetlands and hydrological modelling.


Integrated Methods in Catchment Hydrology—Tracer,Remote Sensing and New Hydrometric Techniquesedited by C. Leibundgut, J. McDonnell & G. Schultz

Tracer techniques and remote sensing are important tools incatchment hydrology: while remote sensing is mainly used toaddress surface parameters, tracers are useful for quantifyingsources of streamflow, groundwater residence times andsurface and subsurface flow paths. However, little integrationof tracer techniques with remote sensing and advancedhydrometric techniques has been attempted. This volume isthe edited proceedings of a symposium (at IUGG 99,Birmingham, UK) which tackled this theme.


Tracers and Modelling in Hydrogeologyedited by A. Dassargues

This overview shows how tracer techniques contribute to theunderstanding, quantification and modelling of flow andtransport processes in complex hydrogeological systems, andhow they are used practically to assess groundwater quality,protection methods, solutions to contamination problems, andwaste disposal impact studies, at different temporal andspatial scales. The papers arise from TraM’2000, in Liège, atwhich specialists from different branches of hydrology mettogether with numerical and geostatistical specialists.

Publ. no. 262 (2000) ISBN 1-901502-21-X; 572+xii pp; £74.00

The Hydrology of the Nileby J. V. Sutcliffe & Y. P. Parks

The Nile is a set of very different tributaries, which cametogether by geological accident. Nevertheless, evidence fromone part of the basin often throws light on a different area.

Recent changes are discussed, in particular the dramaticchange of regime of Lake Victoria and other lakes whichoccurred after 1961. The important wetlands of the WhiteNile basin are considered, including the effect of increasedlake outflows. The authors draw on the extensive recordscollected throughout the basin to provide a detailed accountof the hydrology of the whole Nile basin.

Sponsored by the International Water Management Institute(IWMI), Colombo, Sri Lanka, and Gibb Water, Reading, UK.

Special Publ. no. 5 (1999) ISBN 1-901502-75-9; 180+xii pp;£34.00

The Ecohydrology of South American Rivers andWetlandsedited by M. E. McClain

An overview of ecohydrological processes operating in SouthAmerica’s most important aquatic systems. River reachesranging from pristine to heavily impacted, and processesoperating in channels, wetlands, and riparian environmentsare considered. The Amazon, Orinoco and Paraná receive thegreatest attention, but the condition of the Piracicaba (SãoPaulo) and the Paraíba do Sul (Rio de Janeiro) are alsoevaluated. The natural attenuation processes in theseecosystems stand to aid South America in achieving its goalof sustainable use of its resources.

Sponsored financially by the UNESCO Regional Bureau forScience in Europe (ROSTE).

Special Publ. no. 6 (2002) ISBN 1-901502-02-3; 210+xiv pp;£39.50

Forthcoming IAHS PublicationsCalibration and Reliability in Groundwater Modelling: AFew Steps Closer to Realityedited by K. Kovar & Z. Hrkal

Proceedings of ModelCARE 2002, a conference held atPrague, Czech Republic, in June 2002

Publ. no. 277 (in press) ISBN 1-901502-07-4

Hydrology in the Mediterranean and Semiarid Regionsedited by E. Servat, W. Najem, C. Leduc & A. Shakeel

Proceedings of a symposium held at Montpellier in April 2003Publ. no. 278 (in press) ISBN 1-901502-12-0

IAHS Pressdisseminating the results ofhydrological research and practice


ContactsInformation about IAHS and the IAHS Commissions is available from the IAHS web site:http://www.cig.ensmp.fr/~iahs

For information about IAHS contact:Dr Pierre Hubert, Secretary General IAHS, Ecole des Mines de Paris, F-77305 Fontainebleau, [email protected], tel +33 1 64694740, fax +33 1 64694703, http://www.cig.ensmp.fr/~iahs

For information about IAHS International Commissions contact their Secretaries:

ICSW, Surface WaterProf. Siegfried Demuth, Institute of Hydrology,University of Freiburg, Fahnenbergplatz,D-79098 Freiburg, Germany

ICGW, GroundwaterDr Norio Tase, Institute of Geoscience,University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8571,Japan

ICCE, Continental ErosionDr Dirk de Boer, Department of Geography,University of Saskatchewan, 9 Campus Drive,Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5A5, Canada

ICSI, Snow and IceDr Georg Kaser, Geographical Department,University of Innsbruck, Innrain 52,A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria

ICWQ, Water QualityProf. Bruce Webb, School of Geography andArchaeology, University of Exeter, Amory Building,Rennes Drive, Exeter EX4 4RJ, UK

ICWRS, Water Resources SystemsDr Andreas Schumann, Ruhr University Bochum,Institute for Hydrology and Water ResourcesManagement, D-44780 Bochum, Germany

ICRS, Remote SensingDr Alain Pietroniro, National Water ResearchInstitute, 11 Innovation Blvd, Saskatoon,Saskatchewan S7N 3H5, Canada

ICASVR, Atmosphere–Soil–Vegetation RelationsDr Jirka Simunek, US Salinity Laboratory, USDA,ARS, 450 W. Big Springs Road, Riverside,California 92507, USA

ICT, TracersProf. Chris Leibundgut, Institute of Hydrology,University of Freiburg, Fahnenbergplatz,D-79098 Freiburg, Germany

[email protected] +49 761 2033538, fax +49 761 2033594http://www.uni-freiburg.de/hydrology/icsw

[email protected] +81 298 534244, fax +81 298 519764http://www.envr.tsukuba.ac.jp/~icgw

[email protected] +1 306 9665671, fax +1 306 9665680http://duke.usask.ca/~deboer/icce/

[email protected] +43 512 5075407, fax +43 512 5072895http://geowww.uibk.ac.at/research/icsi

[email protected] +44 1392 263334, fax +44 1392 263342http://www.ex.ac.uk/~bwwebb/icwq

[email protected] +49 234 7002688, fax +49 234 3214153http://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/iahs-icwrs

[email protected] +1 306 9754394, fax +1 306 9755143http://hydrolab.arsusda.gov/~jritchie/

[email protected] +1 909 3694865, fax +1 909 3424964

[email protected] +49 761 2033531, fax +49 761 2033594http://www.lgih.ulg.ac.be/ict

Association Internationale des Sciences Hydrologiques

ICSI/UNESCO HKH-FRIEND training courseon glacier mass balancemeasurements, ChhotaShigri Glacier, HimachalPradesh, India, 2002

Back cover picture:Using a fluorescent tracer to study dispersion processes in a mountain glacier

© IAHS Press 2003ISBN 1-901502-17-1

International Association of Hydrological Sciences

http://www.cig.ensmp.fr/~iahs

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International Association of Hydrological Sciences ... · and practice of hydrology and water resources management. ... has played a critical role in developing isotope ... knowledge