International Conference on Snow Hydrology SnowHydro

The event focused on key issues in snow hydrology and was aimed in particular at an international audience of scientists and practitioners in the fields of snow hydrology and remote sensing of snow cover.

Whilst conferences focusing on snow hydrology have a long tradition in North America – the 86th Western Snow Conference took place in 2018, whilst its counterpart in eastern North America, the Eastern Snow Conference, celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2018 – there have been very few conferences of a similar nature in Europe to date. Instead, issues relating to snow hydrology are often addressed only within the context of individual specialist sessions at larger conferences. The organisers of SnowHydro had therefore set themselves the aim of establishing a standalone conference on a scale that, in addition to the presentations themselves, would offer sufficient opportunities for networking and communication and, in particular, appeal to early-career academics. With around 70 participants from 21 countries (Table 1 and Fig. 1) – roughly on a par with the aforementioned specialist conferences in North America – and with young researchers (Master’s students and PhD candidates) accounting for just under 30 percent of the attendees, this concept was successfully realised.

The conference comprised talks by two invited speakers, seven thematic sessions, poster sessions, a meeting for early-career researchers and a one-day excursion. The fact that SnowHydro has since been held every two years in various European countries is clear evidence of the conference’s success.