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Call For Abstracts
"In the West, when you touch water, you touch everything." - Wayne N. Aspinall
It has been a long time since AWRA convened its annual conference in the Rose City and much has changed. The scenic beauty embodied by the Columbia River with the iconic Mt. Hood looming to the east is still there but now metropolitan Portland is well-known for wines, microbreweries, micro-distilleries, restaurants, food carts, coffee culture, 'green' lifestyle, Voodoo Doughnuts, Silicon Forest, and the quirky character that has enhanced the popular television shows Leverage, Grimm, and of course, the inimitable Portlandia. We will commence the conference with one of Oregon's own, as keynoter Steven L. Stockton, Director of Civil Works, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. A civil engineering graduate of Oregon State University, Steve brings a combination of wisdom, insight, congeniality, and wit rarely seen inside (or outside) the Beltway. Although the Pacific Northwest is globally known for verdant forests, water, coast, salmon, and volcanoes, few people realize that much of the land area of Washington and Oregon is in the rain shadow of the Cascades and residents must cope with water issues characteristic of drier places like Idaho and Nevada. So when you come calling next November, remember that although it might be raining, you'll likely hear presentations that will be on the 'dry' side. Special sessions are planned for a number of timely issues, among them: integrated water resources management (IWRM); aquatic invasive species; ecosystem services and floodplain management; the Columbia River Treaty; shale gas development; low impact development for stormwater management; watershed scale hydrologic response to climate change; sediment, geomorphology, and society; water scarcity and security; hydrologic ecosystem services across the landscape; water quality modeling in reservoirs; resilience thinking; and more. In addition, we will feature a first for an AWRA Annual Conference: a one-day symposium embedded within the meeting. It is titled, 2013 Symposium on Collaborative Modeling for Decision Support - Advancing Water Planning for 30 Years. This innovative session will feature a veritable 'Who's Who' of experts and will enhance your conference experience. We expect about 400-500 multidisciplinary water resources professionals to descend upon our fair city to partake in discussions of science, engineering, Pinot noirs, policy, management, fish, economics, ales vs. lagers, ASR, and other great liquid issues of the day. You will be energized by the location, topics, discourse, and the ability to access and network with an exceptional group of water resources professionals. See you in Portlandia!
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What
the late Rep. Aspinall said years ago applies not only to the West,
but also to the entire world. Rest assured that we will cover all
four compass directions in Portland, Oregon, at AWRA's 48th Annual
Water Resources Conference. The Rose City is one of the best conference
venues in the USA, with an appropriate hydrologic address: it is
located on the Willamette River (19th largest in the USA) just south
of its confluence with the mighty Columbia River (4th largest).
Indeed, the conference hotel, the Red Lion Hotel on the River, sits
on the banks of the Columbia just off Interstate 5.
