Mohawk Watershed Symposium
27 March 2009
Olin Center, Union College Schenectady NY

{This confernce in in the past, see below for more recent events} The Mohawk Watershed Research Group at Union College is hosting a symposium on the physical aspects of the Mohawk River Watershed.  The scientific program, and timing of theme sessions has been determined by the composition of abstracts received.  The meeting will highlight recent and on-going work in the watershed during oral and poster presentations and the technical sessions will be followed by a banquet with a keynote address by R.H. Boyle. 


Announcement for the March 2010 Symposium is Here.

Announcement for the March 2011 Symposium is Here.


• Technical Program Schedule (PDF) - Updated: 21 March

• Organizations represented (registered to date)

• Guidelines for ORAL PRESENTATIONS - 15 minutes for all volunteered oral presentations.

• Papers presented and PDF version of extended abstracts

• Press RELEASES


While there are many scientific and engineering aspects of the Mohawk that are important, the following themes are central to the conference focus:

  1. Water quality, including nutrient loading, the effects of agriculture and industry on water quality, and contaminant fluxes;
  2. Floods, including flood frequency, causes of flooding, and flood mitigation strategies;
  3. Habitats, including biocomplexity, invasive species, analysis of benthic communities, and the distribution of fish and other vertebrates; 
  4. Sediment yield, including transport and deposition through the watershed, bank erosion and potential hazards, slope processes, and sediment budget;
  5. Impact of watershed processes on infrastructure, including bridges, dams, locks, canals, and strategies for floodplain restoration;
  6. Water rights, including issues that that explore the balance between municipal water use and how this might conflict with demands by power generation, industry, drilling, ecosystem management, and maintenance of sustainable ecosystems. 
  7. Synoptic evaluations of the watershed including basin-wide overviews and compilations using GIS, databases, and other methods of integrating and analyzing regionally significant data.
  8. Water budget, including aspects of climate change, precipitation patterns, and weather-related phenomena.

Voluntered oral presentations will be 15 minutes, with 2 minutes for questions and speaker transition.  Posters should be no more than 48” wide in order to fill the provided space. 

Registration material will be available from 8:30 to 8:50 AM in the Olin Foyer. The proceedings begin at 9:00 AM and conclude at 5:00 PM, with scheduled breaks for lunch and coffee. The conference will be followed by the reception in Hale House at 5:30 PM, and then the Banquet from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. Registration is required for the symposium and banquet: reqistration is NOW CLOSED. The detailed schedule of events is HERE as a PDF.

FORMAT and ABSTRACTS

Submitted contributions in the form of extended abstracts were required for either oral or poster presentations. The extended abstract volume will be available to registered participants at the meeting and it will then be available here as a downloadable PDF after the meeting.  All presentations, whether oral or poster, are required to have an accompanying abstract that must pass review.

Abstracts submittal for talks and posters: 18 February 2009 (now closed)

Registration is closed. Please email Jackie Cockburn (see email below) for late registration. No walk ons will be accepted for the conference or banquet, pre-registration for this meeting is required. Badges will be provided at registration, and are required for entrance to the meeting.

Fees: Professional $35 (conference and evening banquet; Students $15 - please mail check after you register - see link below). No walk ons will be accepted, pre-registration for this meeting is required. This meeting is not open to the press without a pre-arranged PRESS PASS, please email conference organizers to make arrangements.

ACCOMMODATIONS

The Holiday Inn on 100 Nott Terrace and the Days Inn at 167 Nott Terrace are wthin easy walking distance to the Olin Center on the Union College Campus (2 blocks). During the meeting, Dutch Hollow, a small campus eatery, will be open for lunch and breakfast.

PARKING and CAMPUS ORIENTATION

Plenty of parking will be available on campus. This meeting is during spring break, so the campus will have few students. Download this map for parking areas that will be open and available ("P"), and note that the Olin Center is #35 on the map. Detailed directions to the Campus are here.


Program co-Chairs:

Jaclyn Cockburn, Department of Geology, Olin Building, Union College 807 Union ST Schenectady, NY 12308-2311, USA +1, 518-388-8015(Office) +1, 518-388-6770 (main office) +1, 518-388-6417 (fax) Email: cockburj @union.edu (remove space after name).

John Garver, Department of Geology, Olin Building, Union College 807 Union ST Schenectady, NY 12308-2311, USA +1, 518-388-6770 (Office) +1, 518-388-6770 (main office) +1, 518-388-6417 (fax) Email: garverj @union.edu (remove space after name).


All rights reserved. No part of the document (including photos) can be copied and/or redistributed, electronically or otherwise, without written permission from: Chair, Geology Department, Union College, Schenectady NY, 12308-2311, USA.

Last Revised: 21 March 2009

 

 

 

 
 

 

Mohawk River, Lock 7, as viewed looking to the southwest, September 2008.

Gilboa Dam, with the newly installed siphons, October 2008.

Erosion of the Chaughtanoonda Creek in Wolf Hollow - a typical small tributary within the Mohawk watershed - after the July 2008 flooding.

Flooding in the Stockade district of Schenectaday that resulted from the March 2007 ice jam in the Rexford Knolls.

Ice jam in the Mohawk, March 2007. This view downstream in Riverside Park shows a cottonwood tree (Populus deltoides) with a scar from the 1996 ice jams.

The toe of a slump on a small tributary to the Schoharie Creek. Here a tremendous volume of sediment was mobilized in 2008.

Visher Ferry power plant and the dam at Lock 7, October 2007 (this and all photos above and DEM to left by J.I. Garver).

 

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