March 6, 2025: NHS Webinar 3: Innovations in Predicting Ice Jam Flooding and Surface Reanalyses

The Canadian Water Resources Association (CWRA) is pleased to announce a webinar series in early 2025 in collaboration with Environment and Climate Change Canada’s National Hydrological Service (NHS). This series will highlight groundbreaking hydrology and hydraulics research conducted as part of the Flood Hazard Identification and Mapping Program (FHIMP) and showcase the latest advances in flood mapping science across Canada.

The webinars are targeted at flood mapping practitioners, researchers, interested parties, and the general public, offering an opportunity to tune in for presentations from subject matter experts at no cost to the participants. All webinars and accompanying materials will be offered in both official languages. Recordings of the presentations and resources will also be made available online after the sessions.

• Tadros Ghobrial (Assistant Professor, Université Laval), “Multi-methodology Approach for Predicting Ice-related Floods Parameters”
  • Speaker Bio: Dr. Ghobrial is a professor at Université Laval and an expert in river ice engineering. His research work focuses on understanding the different river ice processes from early frazil and anchor ice formation, to the breakup ice jams and ice jam flooding. Also, Dr. Ghobrial is collaborating with several governmental agencies and researchers to develop mitigation methods and early warning system for ice jam flood. Dr. Ghobrial has co-authored more than 50 publications in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings and supervised over 20 graduate students.
  • Presentation Description: The presentation will provide an overview of the research efforts led by Dr. Ghobrial at Université Laval to predict ice-related flooding parameters such as discharge, timing, location and severity using multimethodology approaches: physics-based modelling, conceptual models, statistical models, and AI-based models.
• Nicolas Gasset (Research Scientist, Environment and Climate Change Canada), “Canadian Surface Reanalysis (CaSR) Version 3: Method, Characteristics and Results”
  • Speaker Bio: Nicolas Gasset, Ph.D., is an expert in meteorology and environmental numerical forecasting. After graduating as a mechanical engineer from INSA in Rouen, France, he earned a master’s degree in environmental studies at the Université de Moncton, where he created the first public wind atlases for New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. His doctoral thesis at the École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS) was on large-scale simulations applied to the atmospheric boundary layer. During his post-doctoral work at Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), he developed the Canadian Surface Reanalysis (CaSR), a surface and precipitation reanalysis system that he continues to perfect. He was also responsible for the Global Deterministic Prediction System (GDPS) and worked towards the replacement of the Regional Deterministic Prediction System (RDPS), two of the Meteorological Service of Canada’s main operational weather forecasting systems. His expertise in numerical modelling, reanalysis and technology transfer, combined with his frequently cited and award-winning contributions, recently enabled Mr. Gasset to become the ECCC research scientist responsible for the Canadian Surface Reanalysis (CaSR).
  • Presentation Description: The presentation introduces version 3 of the Canadian Surface Reanalysis (CaSR), which was recently made public. The methodology, characteristics and results of this reanalysis will be presented.

Available in French

About the Flood Hazard Identification and Mapping Program (FHIMP)

The Flood Hazard Identification and Mapping Program (FHIMP) is a collaborative, Government of Canada initiative led by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), in partnership with Public Safety Canada, and Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). The FHIMP is investing in updating Canada’s existing flood mapping capabilities.

In partnership with provincial and territorial governments, the FHIMP aims to complete flood hazard maps of higher-risk areas in Canada and make this flood hazard information accessible. These maps will help emergency planning by guiding the placement of evacuation routes and support land use planning by identifying locations for building critical infrastructure and flood mitigation structures like dikes. Flood maps provide reliable information on flood hazards and support decision-makers and Canadians in their efforts to adapt to a changing climate while protecting properties and lives.

A second component of the FHIMP is the funding of universities and non-profit organizations to develop flood science and integrate the impacts of climate change and uncertainty into flood hazard mapping. From 2021 to 2024, the Government of Canada invested $3M in this aspect of FHIMP and these webinars highlight research supported by this investment.

About CWRA

The Canadian Water Resources Association (CWRA) is a national registered charity comprised of members from the public, private and academic sectors who are committed to promoting responsible, innovative, and effective water resources management.

Créée en 1947 sous le nom de Western Canada Reclamation Association, l'ACRH est la seule organisation nationale qui s'occupe de toutes les questions relatives aux ressources en eau dans toutes les régions du Canada. Nous offrons une gamme de services et de programmes axés sur le développement professionnel, l'apport d'expertise et de conseils, l'éducation et la collaboration.