Call for Extended Sessions

Please join us for the 13th National Monitoring Conference April 24–28, 2023, likely in Hartford, Connecticut or Virginia Beach, Virginia AND in a limited virtual setting. This hybrid conference provides opportunities for water stakeholders – federal, state, tribal and local water professionals, nonprofits, academia, water consultants and industry, and volunteer and community scientists – to network, develop new skills and partnerships, and exchange information.

The National Water Quality Monitoring Council (NWQMC) is requesting Extended Session proposals that align with the 2023 conference topics. Extended Sessions are defined as sessions which run for 90 minutes or more and are organized into Workshops, Panel Discussions or Facilitated Round Tables. Extended Session proposals are due July 22, 2022.

2023 Conference Session Topics May Include:

  • 50 Years After the Clean Water Act and Similar Efforts: a retrospective & prospective – lessons learned in water quality condition, assessment, justice & equity and long-term trend monitoring
  • Climate Change – impacts on hydrology, living resources, water quality and monitoring methods
  • Volunteer and Community-Based Monitoring – volunteer monitoring, school & community groups and watershed associations, data to action, stewardship, increasing diversity & inclusion
  • Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion – incorporating these values into monitoring programs and policies, providing a seat at the table, language access, land acknowledgements, use of gender pronouns, addressing systemic racial inequities
  • Monitoring for Public Health – water supply, recreational and fish and shellfish consumption, urban water quality
  • Monitoring for Ecological Health – aquatic life uses, biological community health (e.g., macroinvertebrates, fish, diatoms/periphyton), biological index development, eDNA
  • Waterbody Monitoring – lakes, groundwater, estuarine, near-shore ocean, Great Lakes, rivers and streams, wetlands, surface water/groundwater interactions
  • Effectiveness Monitoring – Are Management Actions Working? – restoration results, best management practices, monitoring and education/outreach successes, inform priorities and track progress in protecting and restoring the condition of our nation’s waters
  • Protecting High Quality Waters – monitoring to identify and evaluate waters; inform/implement protection strategies
  • Monitoring Collaboration – national, tribal, regional, state and local initiatives, partnerships, and councils; inclusive stakeholder identification and engagement; Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
  • Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) (freshwater & marine) – monitoring HABs, toxins & related factors; monitoring to support management, prevention & treatment, and bloom triggers
  • Persistent Toxic Contaminants – emerging and bioaccumulative contaminants (e.g., PFAS, mercury, cyanotoxins, Vibrio spp, MRSA)
  • Nutrients – nutrient dynamics, public health and ecological impacts, monitoring and analysis for management support
  • Aggregating, Analyzing, Visualizing & Disseminating data/information – open data science tools and tool development; data portals; data equity; R-Shiny applications, story maps, and dashboards; communicating assessment, condition, and trends to decision makers and public
  • New Technologies – in situ and continuous monitoring sensors, remote sensing, analytical methods, eDNA
  • Monitoring considerations for managing the full water cycle-natural vs. human components of a “One Water” initiative
  • Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning – applications of AI/ML to monitoring science; emerging approaches and opportunities; ethical use, data-driven decision making; and knowledge transfer across science organizations and stakeholders
  • Sources-Contributions of Point and Nonpoint Pollution – atmospheric deposition and hydrological modification

Please review the Extended Session Guidelines for details on the Extended Session Submission and Review process. Instructions for submitting concurrent session proposals are available on the conference website at https://www.nalms.org/2023nmc/. Extended Session proposers are expected to participate as an Extended Session Chair.

All Extended Session proposals MUST be received no later than July 22, 2022. By August 1, 2022, Extended Session Chairs will be notified if their proposal has been accepted.

Submit an Extended Session Proposal

Please distribute this announcement to your staff and water colleagues

Questions?
Please send all Extended Session proposal and program development questions to nwqmc@epa.gov.

REGISTRATION INFO is coming this winter to our conference website. For exhibitor and sponsorship information, contact Alyssa Anderson, sponsorship@nalms.org. To be placed on the conference mailing list, contact Philip Forsberg, pforsberg@nalms.org. For general conference information, contact Danielle Grunzke, grunzke.danielle@epa.gov, Candice Hopkins, chopkins@usgs.gov, or Felipe Arzayus, felipe.arzayus@noaa.gov.

For more information on related NWQMC webinars and content, please join the NWQMC listserv by sending a blank e-mail to join-nwqmc@lists.epa.gov.