Forward
Welcome to the Westin Kierland Resort and the 2009 Annual Water
Symposium jointly hosted by the Arizona Hydrological Society and the American Institute of Hydrology on
August 31 through September 2, 2009. The field of hydrology is being faced with two fundamental changes.
First, the general public is becoming aware of the importance of water sustainability, quality, and availability.
No less a personage than James Bond himself is now protecting us from the water thieves.
Water is no longer perceived as something that automatically comes out of the tap but is a
precious resource that needs to be managed or severe repercussions will occur.
The second challenge that faces the hydrologic community is climate warming. We now know that climate warming
is occurring. What the profession is attempting to determine is what that means on a region by region basis. Some areas may
become wetter, some drier, some may not change at all. However, the consensus appears to be that whatever the specific change
in any individual locality might be, it is highly probable that the extremes of floods and droughts will intensify.
As such, we have set forth this conference to exchange ideas on managing hydrologic extremes.
Historically, the American Institute of Hydrology has provided peer-reviewed papers for the profession.
The Arizona Hydrological Society has attempted to maintain a more informal approach to allow a broader exchange of
information. The two societies working together have combined the two techniques and on this disk you will find two
folders. One that contains those papers which were written, peer-reviewed and revised and the second containing the
abstracts and those papers that have not had such a review. Both are
linked from the
Technical Sessions page. We hope this information helps you in meeting the demands
that face us.
|
