John Doherty (Australia) Presentation topic: Environmental modeling - encapsulating what we known and quantifying what we don't"

Dr. John Doherty works primarily for himself as a private consultant. He also works in a part-time capacity for the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training at Flinders University Australia. There is a considerable overlap between his research and consulting interests. These are focused mainly on the following topics, all of which attempt to serve the greater purpose of maximizing the use environmental modeling in the decision-making context:

• Solution of the inverse problem of model calibration in ways that are numerically efficient but that allow maximum usage of both field data and expert knowledge;

• Quantification of the uncertainty associated with model predictions of management interest;

• Development of a theoretical understanding of the benefits and costs of simplicity vs. complexity in environmental models;

• Appropriate use of models in the environmental decision-making process.
   

Aaron Packman (USA) Presentation topic: Overview of surface-groundwater interactions in the context of river degradation, water quality, and ecosystem processes

Dr. Aaron Packman is a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Northwestern University.  His research focuses on environmental and microbial transport processes, with particular emphasis on understanding the basic processes that control interfacial transport in aquatic systems and the coupling of physical transport processes with biological and biogeochemical processes in dynamic natural environments such as rivers. Dr. Packman’s work is highly collaborative and encompasses basic fluid mechanics, particle transport and morphodynamics, microbiology, and aquatic and surface chemistry.  Important applications include contaminant transport and water quality, microbial habitat conditions and benthic microbial ecology, nutrient and carbon cycling, ecosystem degradation and restoration, control of biofilm-based infections, and the transmission of waterborne disease.

Dr. Packman has received several awards for his work, including Career awards from the U.S. National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, and the Huber Research Prize from the American Society of Civil Engineers.  He is currently an associate editor for the leading aquatic sciences journal Limnology and Oceanography – Fluids and Environments, and is the Vice-President of the International Association for Sediment Water Science.  He is also very active on technical committees and panels addressing sediment contamination, hydrologic synthesis, and waterborne disease transmission.
 

Per Gustav Stålnacke (Norway) Presentation topic: How slow can it be? Spatial and temporal considerations on nutrient retention from source to river mouth

Dr. Per Stålnacke is the head of the department of 'Water quality and hydrology' at Bioforsk Soil and environment in Norway and also vice-president of the IAHS ICWQ. His research interest is on integrated water resources management and the policy-science interface. Besides, he has considerable experiences in assessments of nutrient fluxes at a river basin scale. There is, according to him, a huge research need to better quantify the hydrological pathways and development of better tools to assess and improve the understanding of how long it can take before we can observe improved water quality due to implemented mitigation measures. These are the apparent needs in relation to the WFD and the HELCOM BSAP. Stålnacke will in his presentation show and discuss some very recent results on nutrient retention in the Baltic Sea drainage area and time trends in selected rivers in Baltic Sea and Europe.

Nikolai Friberg (Denmark)

Presentation topic:
Restoring stream ecosystems in a changing climate