As hydrologists, we spend a lot of time and effort conducting experiments and field measurement campaigns and then subjecting the data to increasingly complicated analyses.  I think that this is a good time for us to stop and reconsider what we are doing.  What are we measuring?  How are we analyzing the data?  How can we tell if we are making the most useful measurements and conducting the most appropriate analyses?  Using subsurface hydrology as an example, I hope to identify some things that we are doing right (although we may not know it) and some things that we are probably doing wrong (although we may not believe it).  I also hope to suggest some guidelines for more efficient data collection and analysis.  This will be achieved through reference to impossibly simple examples.  You almost certainly won’t leave this talk with increased hydrologic knowledge; but, you may come away with some new perspectives on hydrologic measurement and modeling.  If nothing else, you may gain a way that you can talk about the practice of (subsurface) hydrologic science in a way that will be immediately understandable to almost anyone (person next to you on the plane, neighbors, parents, etc.).

 

This talk will be followed immediately by an informal social hour at Gentle Ben’s to discuss and/or debunk all ideas presented.