Another CWRR student attending the Aberdeen Catchment Science Course

This year was the 7th annual edition of the Catchment Science Summer School, organised at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. Recommended to me by several CWRR students, former attendees themselves, I attended the 6-day short course in August 2016. I would now certainly recommend future young hydrologists to take the opportunity to attend this intense, but worthwhile, course as well.

Indeed, this course covers the historical evolution of hydrological sciences up to the most recent state of the art, from the understanding of the runoff processes, the different field measurements and analysis techniques, to the modelling approaches. The week is divided into lectures, hands-on exercises and several evening sessions to discuss a selection of benchmark articles.

One full-day is dedicated to a field trip to the Upper Dee Catchment (see pictures below), not far from Balmoral Castle. This northern catchment has been extensively studied by the researchers at the University of Aberdeen, and several current post-doctorate researchers at the University joined the class to share their field work experience.

As a hydrological modeller, it was an enriching experience, as I learnt more about the field work activities that I am less involved in on an everyday basis, yet essential to any model. The considerations about equi-finality and uncertainty of hydrological models were of particular interest to me as well. It was also a great opportunity to meet other early career hydrologists from all around the world, that I will hopefully get a chance to run into at future conferences.

This 7th edition was certainly very special to the course coordinators, as it was the last one involving the participation of Prof. Keith Beven. To mark the occasion, all the lectures given this year have been video recorded.