History

History

Introduction

Every community has an origin story and a history. As new people come into the community and as existing community members seek greater involvement, it is natural that people wonder how the community came to be and what issues has the community dealt with before. Often, the same issues return again and again, so awareness of past discussions and viewpoints can inform current decision-making. This part of the website aims to document the history of the Ecohydraulics community and track events into the future. History and current events have multiple angles, so if you have a voice you want to add to this part f the website, email Greg with your input and he’ll add it.

In the beginning…

Once upon a time there was a group of people who seemed to find each other’s presentations at conferences, as so often happens in science. They formed an informal group they named the “International Aquatic Modeling Group” (IAMG). It included people like Thom Hardy, Piotr Parasiewicz, Michel Leclerc, Klaus Jorde and Atle Harby, ____, etc. <folks, email me the names of other early contributors and they will be added to this list…> They just met at conferences and also arranged some informal meetings and workshops. However, it clearly went further than that, based on surviving IAMG documentation. As a formal entity IAMG appears to have begin in or before 1995, with a European part initiated on 1.9.1995.

What exactly was the IAMG?

IAMG may have been informal in many ways, but it engaged in serious and meaningful scholarly activities. For example, a strategic plan was written and significant efforts were made to comprehend the scope of activities during meetings and workshops. Workshops involved both academic presentations and field trips to practice and develop practical skills.

We can best understand the IAMG today by reading its strategic plan and founding documents. Here is what we know

EAMN and COST Action 626

Along with the larger IAMG, another related effort was taken, the formation of the International Aquatic Modeling Network – Europe, aka the European Aquatic Modeling Network. Some IAMG members applied for a COST Action, and successfully obtained the COST Action 626, “European Aquatic Modelling Group”.

EAMN establishment

After COST Action 626 ended in 2004, IAMG has not been so active, but always present at Ecohydraulics conferences.

Founding of the IAHR Ecohydraulics Technical Committee

Atle Harby viewpoint: “We were approached by IAHR, their president was actually a SINTEF colleague, Torkild Carstens. We agreed to form a Ecohydraulics Section in IAHR, but we also kept IAMG running (free of charge, no fees). We agreed then that IAMG members (which in principle could be anyone as we had no fee or no rules), would have equal access to IAHR Ecohydraulic Section member meetings as IAHR members. The big drawback with IAHR is that the membership fee is prohibitive for many people to join. With this twist, anyone interested could join. Ecohydraulics is formally linked to IAHR, but not only to IAHR.”

Thom Hardy comments: “IAMG embraced anyone who wanted to join the dance but we would be happy to collaborate as part of our established ISE symposium series.”

Minutes of the 1997 business meeting in San Francisco written by Klaus Jorde: “Dear IAMG-members, between August 10. and 15. in San Francisco the IAHR conference 1997 took place. As you know, the IAHR-subcommittee “ECOHYDRAULICS” and the IAMG have joint working groups and Atle is a member of the ECOHYDRAULICS-subcommittee of the IAHR. As he could not go to San Francisco and I was there anyways he asked me to represent the IAMG together with Thomas Hardy. So here is my report for you. There were several meetings of the ECOHYDRAULICS-subcommittee headed by Bruno Manoha from EDF France… [goes on to report various specifics of meeting]… Alltogether I had the impression that the ECOHYDRAULICS-subcommittee is quite active and very interested in what we and others are doing. There was some discussion raised by Jorg Imberger why IAMG is not a group within the IAHR but Thomas and I (as well as some others) agreed that nobody should try to urge the IAMG into the IAHR (for various reasons) and that it is sufficient if some IAMG members are also members of the IAHR so we can make sure that information is flowing in both directions.”

Ecohydraulics TC 2000-2009

To be written

Ecohydraulics TC 2010-2019