How About Drought? Citizen Science in Action (Alberta)

Presentation 1: Community-based groundwater monitoring in Rocky View County using a citizen-science approach and extension into the broader Bow River Basin

Presentation 2: Combining Citizen Science with Satellite Data to Monitor Changing Water Levels in Alberta’s Lakes

Speakers
Dr. Masaki Hayashi, University of Calgary
Masaki Hayashi is a professor in the Department of Earth, Energy, and Environment at the University of Calgary. He received his B.Sc. and MSc. in earth sciences from Waseda University and Chiba University, respectively, in Japan and his Ph.D. in earth sciences from the University of Waterloo in Canada. His main research interests are in the connection among groundwater, surface water, and atmospheric moisture in various environments ranging from the prairies to the mountains.

Wendell Koning, Bow River Basin Council Science Committee
Wendell Koning is a Limnologist/ Water Quality Specialist. He recently retired after 20+ years with Alberta Environment and Protected Areas. A current key interest is promoting citizen science in various ways and taking a watershed approach to lake and river management. He is cochair of the BRBC Science Committee, board member of the Alberta Lakes Management Committee, and under contract to the Bighill Creek Preservation Society to create a Bighill watershed State of the Watershed (SOW) report.

Grant Parkins, Lake Observations by Citizen Scientists and Satellites
Grant Parkins is the Watershed Education Coordinator with the Center for Public Engagement with Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In this role, he helps coordinate the NASA-funded Lake Observations by Citizen Scientists & Satellites Program (LOCSS), a project monitoring lake level changes in over 260 lakes across 10 countries. He works with local partners, volunteers, and citizen scientists to obtain valuable on-the-ground data which help the LOCSS team better understand how and why lake levels are changing over time.