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Meeting Minutes - 21 Dec 2020

Minutes for Unsaturated Zone Technical Committee Meeting

Monday, December 21, 2020
Virtually via Zoom.

Attendees:    Yusong Li (TC Chair), Scott Tyler (Hydrology Section Chair), Joaquin Jimenez-Martinez (TC Deputy Chair), Veronica Morales, Teamrat A. Ghezzehei, Raghavendra Jana, Bo Gao, Zhen Li,  Bo Guo, Chadi Sayde, Zoe Kanavas (student member), Nandita Gaur, Lirong Zhong, Ryan Stewart, 

Membership update: A list of current members is attached at the end of this document. Feel free to recommend new members. AGU recommends rotating off members who did not show up in the committee meeting in the past three years. Emails will be sent out to double-check the membership.

Session Feedback and Questions to Scott Tyler (Hydrology Section President):

The group expressed mixed experience with the virtual format of the AGU meeting. The online format can not be a replacement for the in-person format. Senior members had a difficult time engaging in the meeting. The virtual format did allow more students to join the meeting. The technical supports of AGU were very helpful. Specific comments on improving the quality of the meeting, as well as on session mergers, were discussed.

Scott Tyler took notes and will convey the suggestions to the AGU meeting committee. Up to now, it is not yet known what format will be taken for the 2021 AGU Fall meeting. Frontiers in Hydrology Meeting 2022 is scheduled in summer 2022. Technical committees will be largely involved in meeting planning.

A list of sessions organized or co-organized by the committee is attached to this minute. –thanks to every one for your great efforts!

 

Deputy-chair election: The committee elected Veronica Morales as the deputy chair.

Mini Award: The Vadose Zone hydrology session committee has nominated two student posters for committee mini award. 1st place will receive $300 and the 2nd place winner will receive $200.

1st place: Tom DeBell , North Carolina State University

Presentation title: Enhanced Hydrologic Monitoring using Fiber Optics - Implementing Distributed Temperature Sensing to Uncover Flow Paths and Groundwater Interactions in Stormwater Conveyance Structures

 

2nd place: Abdullah Mamun, Clemson University

Presentation title: Evaluating the ability of dual domain models to capture the water content evolution observed in the macropore and matrix regions of a soil by x-ray CT imaging during an infiltration experiment

Planning for next year:

Vadose zone hydrology session volunteers: Guo Bo, Nandita Gaur, and Raghu Jana – thank you!!!

Session Ideas: 

            Microbiological activities in the vadose zone 

            Large scale heterogeneity and vadose zone processes

            Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, and vadose zone processes

            PFAS transport and remediation in the vadose zone

            Climate change and groundwater

            Online teaching

 

Website: https://connect.agu.org/hydrology/about/committees/unsat

 Please send a short Bio to Raghu (r.jana@skoltech.ru) to include your information on the committee website. Mini-award winner information, committee meeting minutes, and 2020 session information will be sent to Raghu to update the website. The website will serve as a platform to document committee activities.


List of Committee Members (updated 21 December 2020):

Joaquin Jimenez-Martinez (Chair, 2021-2022)
Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology

Veronica Morales (Deputy Chair, 2021-2022)
University of California-Davis

Yusong Li (Past Chair 2019-2020)
University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Communication Director: Raghavendra Jana (Term Jan 2019-Dec 2020)

Communication Associate Director: Veronica Morales (Term: Jan 2020 – Dec 2021)

Committee Members

 

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Minutes for Unsaturated Zone Technical Committee Meeting

Time: 6:45am – 7:45am, Monday, December 9, 2019

Venue: Marriott Marquis, Nob Hill A, Lower B2

 

Meeting Attendance:    Raghavendra (Raghu) Jana, Veronica Morales, Joaquin Jimenez-Martinez,          Shahab Karimifard, Thomas Phelan, Kathleen M. Smits, Teamrat A. Ghezzehei, Ian Molnar,          Thomas Harter, Bo Gao, Zhen Li, Yusong Li

Membership update: A list of current members is attached at the end of this document. Feel free to recommend new members. AGU recommends rotating off members who did not show up in the committee meeting in the past three years. Emails will be sent out to double check the membership.

Website:  Great thanks to Raghu for developing the first version of the committee website! https://connect.agu.org/hydrology/about/committees/unsat

The committee decided to create a communication subcommittee, one director and one associate director, with one-year overlap between the terms. Current subcommittee officers:

Communications Director: Raghavendra (Raghu) Jana (Term Jan 2019-Dec 2020)

Communications Associate Director: Veronica Morales (Term: Jan 2020 – Dec 2021)

Student member: Zhen Li, Bo Gao, and Shahab Karimifard

 

Recommendation from student members: 

  • Solicitate short updates (several sentences) from committee members quarterly and share on the website. – committee chair will send out emails to solicitate every quarter and students will help synthesize and put onto the website.
  • Recommend the committee use social media. A Twitter account was established shortly after the meeting by Raghu. Those of you on Twitter please follow @unsathydro and tag it on your related tweets.

 

Mini-award: Two presentations (poster and/or oral) will be selected from the General Vadose Zone Hydrology Session; Session organizers will help select top three candidates.

Feedback from session conveners on this year’s sessions: Generally all good. Some experienced some issues during session merge. Some questions raised about the standard of merge, is that unique to the hydrology section? Concerns will be communicated to the AGU hydrology section.

Recommendations for next year’s sessions:

  1. Volunteers to organize the General Vadose Zone Hydrology session:

Ian Molnar, Teamrat A. Ghezzehei, Raghavendra (Raghu) Jana, and Veronica Morales

Thank you!! The session will continue to have an oral section. Session organizers will also help with the committee's annual award evaluation.

 

  1. Ideas for 2020 Session proposal:
Colloid transport session – suggested to tie with Micro/nano plastics in soils / health

Multiphase flow session –
AI learning session – particularly for soil and vadose zone processes
Climate change and groundwater – continue collaboration with groundwater committee
Environmental monitoring - sensors near surfaces, measurements.
Vapor transport of VOC - Vapor intrusion; Interaction with land atmosphere;  gas transport/ VOC/pesticide… / multiphase flow…
Vadose and public heath – emerging contaminants / uptake by crop/ sea

 

UNSATURATED ZONE Technical Committee

Yusong Li (Chair 2019-2020)
University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Joaquin Jimenez-Martinez (Deputy Chair, 2019-2020)

Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology

Teamrat A. Ghezzehei (Past Chair 2017-2018) 

University of California, Merced

Communication Director: Raghavendra (Raghu) Jana (Term Jan 2019-Dec 2020)

Communication Associate Director: Veronica Morales (Term: Jan 2020 – Dec 2021)

Committee Members

 

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