Call for Sessions

Deadline Extended to June 24!

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 session proposals for concurrent sessions that align with the 2023 conference themes. Concurrent session proposals are due June 24, 2022.

Following acceptance of Concurrent Session proposals by July 22, 2022, the NWQMC will issue a Call for Abstracts. The Call for Extended Sessions will be issued in mid-June. Selected Concurrent Session Chairs will be asked to develop and facilitate their Concurrent Session.

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 Concurrent Session Guidelines for details on the session proposal submission and review process. Instructions for submitting concurrent session proposals are available on the conference website at https://www.nalms.org/2023nmc/. Session proposers are expected to participate as a Session Chair or designate another as the Chair.
All session proposals MUST be received no later than June 24, 2022. By July 22, 2022, Concurrent Session Chairs will be notified if their proposal has been accepted. All accepted concurrent sessions will be included in the Call for Abstracts.

Please distribute this announcement to your staff and water colleagues