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SUMMARY:Tales from the field: when environmental sensors help and hinder s
 cience
DTSTART:20171128T193000
DTEND:20171128T203000
DTSTAMP:20261004T221005Z
UID:0c4bdb55d6b87e996687418c2f28b36e4b9dd998bf4f3dbdd1604470
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dr. Natalie Ceperley & Anthony Michelon\, University of Lausan
 ne\, Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics\n\nSpeakers: The Institute of Ear
 th Surface Dynamics was established on the 1st January 2014\, comprising r
 esearchers from five of the former institutes of the Faculty of Geoscience
 s and the Environment. This gives us a unique opportunity to group Earth S
 cientists\, Environmental Scientists and Physical Geographers together\, i
 n a single institute\, supported by world class field equipment\, laborato
 ries and computational capacity.\n\nThe mission of the new Institute is to
  undertake research of the highest international quality relating to earth
  surface processes and dynamics\, over a range of space and time scales\, 
 and including environmental change whether related to human activities or 
 natural processes.\n\nDuring our first phase of development\, we are prior
 itising four research foci :\nCycles and fluxes of water and other element
 s\nGeomatics\, including geostatistics\, machine learning and remote sensi
 ng\nGeomorphology\, the cryosphere and erosion processes\nNatural and huma
 n impacted ecosystems\nStories from Burkina Faso & High Elevation Switzerl
 and\n\nThe quality of weather predictions\, climate change assessments\, a
 nd natural resource management depends on the quality of hydrological and 
 meteorological data. Systematic biases in the location of measurement stat
 ions\, for example in wealthy countries or in places that are road accessi
 ble\, will result in systematic errors in scientists’ ability to provide
  these crucial services to society. Two of the largest gaps in current glo
 bal monitoring are: (1) high elevation sites and (2) the African continent
 \, specifically anywhere outside of airports\, in most sub-Saharan countri
 es besides Benin and South Africa\, and in rural areas. These two gaps hav
 e particularly high stakes for society. First\, high elevation sites are o
 ften considered “the water towers of the world” since most of the worl
 d’s rivers and streams are generated in the mountains and represent mete
 orological irregularities that would be hard to predict even with the best
  data. Second\, people living in rural sub-Saharan Africa are the some of 
 the most vulnerable to climate change\, given the high environmental depen
 dence of rain-fed subsistence farming and lack of social services\, and th
 e gap in hydro-meteorological data and correspondingly in predictions rend
 ers these populations even more sensitive to disease\, floods\, famine\, a
 nd droughts.\n\nIn this presentation\, we will explore two sites that have
  been instrumented for hydro-meteorological research. We will present the 
 nuts and bolts of our current and past monitoring networks including wirel
 ess sensors\, eddy-covariance\, dendrology\, and corresponding sampling fo
 r stable isotopes in water. We will discuss the basic challenges to get po
 wer\, collect data\, and access remote areas and our solutions. We will hi
 ghlight our failures and inspire you with our dreams of an ideal monitorin
 g network.
LOCATION:MED 3 2215 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room=MED32215
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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