Skip to main content Skip to main navigation Skip to page-level navigation Go to the Disability Resource Centre Website Go to the DRC Booking Accommodation Portal Go to the Inclusive Technology Lab Website
The University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia Okanagan campus
UBC Okanagan News
  • Research
  • People
    • Student Profile
    • Faculty Profile
    • Alumni Spotlight
  • Campus Life
    • Campus News
    • Student Life
    • Teaching & Learning
  • Community Engagement
  • About the Collection
    • Stories for Media
  • UBCO Events
  • Search All Stories
Home / 2015 / July / 02 / UBC hosts international Conference on Forests and Water
Environment & Sustainability, Research, Teaching & Learning

UBC hosts international Conference on Forests and Water

July 2, 2015

Delegates highlight how changing forest environments affect water resources

Adam Wei, professor of forest hydrology and ecology with UBC Okanagan’s Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences, is co-organizer of the upcoming International Conference on Forests and Water in a Changing Environment. The conference takes place at UBC Okanagan July 6 to 9.

Adam Wei, professor of forest hydrology and ecology with UBC Okanagan’s Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences, is co-organizer of the upcoming International Conference on Forests and Water in a Changing Environment. The conference takes place at UBC Okanagan July 6 to 9.

Scientists from around the world will be in Kelowna next week to talk about water quality and availability, forestry and aquatic ecology as UBC’s Okanagan campus hosts the International Conference on Forests and Water in a Changing Environment.

The conference, held every three years, provides an opportunity for international scientists to gather and share their research and exchange ideas, says conference chair Adam Wei.

The goal is to provide an opportunity for experts who specialize in forest hydrology, eco-hydrology, geomorphology, watershed management, and climate change in forested environments to connect and share their knowledge.

Wei, an Earth and Environmental Sciences professor with UBC Okanagan’s Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences, says this is the fourth-ever international Forests and Water conference and the 2015 focus is all about forest disturbance and hydrological processes in a changing environment.

“Forests play a vital role in sustaining water resources and aquatic ecosystems,” says Wei. “Forest disturbance, from natural events — like wildfire, insect infestation, disease, or even windstorms — and human-caused disturbance including timber harvesting and land conversion, can have a profound effect on hydrologic, geomorphic, and ecologic processes.”

The conference includes a full-day tour that will take participants on a trip past local lakes, through grasslands, and a variety of forest types to the Upper Penticton Creek experimental watersheds. Along the way, they will witness the effects of fire, insects, logging, and other disturbances in the Okanagan Valley. The tour will also stop at the Okanagan River dam, where water supplies and international water agreements will be discussed.

“Our understanding of hydrologic and ecologic response to accelerated environmental and land use change is key to the development of adaptive and mitigating strategies to ensure the continued security of water supplies and ecological values,” says conference co-chair Rita Winkler, Forest Hydrologist, with the BC Ministry of Forests Lands and Natural Resource Operations.

The conference has attracted top researchers from around the world, says Wei. Along with keynote speakers from Europe, Australia, China, Canada and the United States, a number of oral presentations and poster displays will be offered by scientists and students. Wei expects more than 200 delegates from more than 20 countries at the conference, which runs July 6 to 9.

“I am happy that this conference has caught the attention of world-leading scientists, who will talk about how forest changes affect water resources and how we operationally manage those effects,” adds Wei.

Conference Themes

  • Natural and human disturbance effects on hydrological processes (water quantity and water quality) in forested watershed at different spatial scales
  • Climate variability, forest changes and hydrologic responses
  • Reforestation and hydrological processes
  • Forest carbon and water coupling across different spatial scales
  • Applications of new methods, models and technologies
  • Integrated watershed assessment and management
  • Emerging topics: the effects of forest changes on surface water and groundwater interaction, and application of landscape ecology on watershed hydrology in forested watersheds

More information can be found at forestandwater2015.com.

— 30 —

Media Contact

universityrelations
E-mail: universityrelations@newsbuild.ok.ubc.ca

Content type: Media Release
More content from: Irving K Barber School of Arts and Sciences (prior July 2020)

Trending Stories

  • Reducing the side effects of cancer therapy
  • Psychedelic mushroom microdoses can improve mood, mental health
  • UBCO’s largest graduating class marks 20 years of growth
  • How one student connects AI innovation to wildfire research
  • Putting community, students and research on the same track
All Stories
Contact Media Relations

About UBC Okanagan

UBC’s Okanagan campus is an innovative hub for research and learning founded in partnership with local Indigenous peoples, the Syilx Okanagan Nation, in whose traditional, ancestral and unceded territory the campus resides. The most established and influential global rankings all consistently place UBC in the top five per cent of universities in the world, and among the top three Canadian universities.

The Okanagan campus combines a globally recognized UBC education with a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community that welcomes students and faculty from around the world in British Columbia’s stunning Okanagan Valley. For more visit ok.ubc.ca.

Discover more about UBC Okanagan

Find a Program Admissions Book a Tour UBCO Facts
UBC Okanagan Campus News, University Relations

Innovation Precinct Annexation 1 (IA1)
3505 Spectrum Court
Kelowna, BC Canada V1V 2Z1

We respectfully acknowledge the Syilx Okanagan Nation and their peoples, in whose traditional, ancestral, unceded territory UBC Okanagan is situated.

 

Search all stories

Subscribe to receive news by email

Visit UBC's Vancouver news room

Global and Admin Messages

News

Okanagan Campus

TikTok icon Linkedin icon

UBC Okanagan News
Okanagan Campus
3333 University Way
Kelowna, BC Canada V1V 1V7
Find us on
  
Back to top
The University of British Columbia
  • Emergency Procedures |
  • Terms of Use |
  • Copyright |
  • Accessibility