Networking Session Topics

You will have a chance to discuss a topic of your choice in detail with your peers from around the nation. A block of sessions will be dedicated to this networking opportunity that will allow for sharing diverse perspectives. To help us get you in a topic that best fits your needs, please select your top priority from these themes in the dropdown option on your registration form. In the following questions, we’ll ask you to enter the number of your first and second specific topics.

Monitoring for the Protection of Aquatic Resources

Protecting Water Quality

A1. Integrating Chemical, Physical and Biological Indicators in Assessment, Restoration and Protection of Water Quality

A2. Advances and Challenges in Measuring Physical, Chemical, Biological Health of Estuarine and Coastal Waters

A3. Evaluating Effects of Regenerative Agriculture on Water Quality, Hydrology, and Ecosystem Health

Public Health

A4. Challenges with Current or Future Water Quality Standards or Criteria

A5. Approaches for Communicating Public Health Risks with Underserved and Subsistence Communities

A6. Education and Outreach: How Monitoring Can Connect the Public with Water Quality Concerns and Protection

Monitoring for Ecological Health

A7. How to Prioritize Ecological Monitoring in the Face of Limited Funding

A8. Biological Assessment, Data Quality, and Comparability

A9. Using eDNA in Ecological Health Assessments

Policy, Government and Regulation Driving Water Quality Decisions

A10. What Elements in the CWA Will Need to Evolve or be Developed to Claim Success in Another 50 years?

A11. Policy Avenues for Prioritizing the Protection of High Quality Waters

A12. Approaches for Building Agency/Organization Capacity for Data Management and Analysis

Watershed-Based Planning

A13. Its Bigger Than a HUC: Connecting Data and Information to Engage in Holistic Watershed Planning

A14. Role of Headwater Stream, Riparian Buffer and Wetland Protection in Watershed Based Planning in the Face of Environmental Change

Climate Change

A15. Monitoring the Effectiveness of Green Infrastructure and Other Climate Resiliency Practices

A16. Ecological Indicators and Markers of Climate Change

Emerging Technologies

A17. Remote Sensing: Using Satellites and Drones to Support Monitoring

A18. Advancing Geospatial Applications to Support Monitoring and Assessment Programs

A19. Forecasting Water-Quality at the Regional and National Scale

Groundwater and Surface Water Interactions

A20. Advances in Monitoring In-Situ Groundwater Quality and Quantity

A21. National Groundwater and Surface Water Monitoring Coordination and Collaboration


Volunteer Monitoring and Collaboration

Monitoring Collaboration

B1. What Makes a Successful Monitoring Collaboration? Swap stories and offer insights on effective collaborations.

B2. Participatory Sciences Role in the Past and Looking Toward the Future

B3. Monitoring Networks: Working Across State and/or International Borders

Volunteer and Community-Based Monitoring

B4. Best Practices to Engage Volunteer Scientists in Monitoring Collaborations

B5. Integrating Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Monitoring Collaborations

New Tools and Resources

B6. Mobile App Development to Support Volunteer Monitoring

B7. Using AI to Enhance Participatory Science for Monitoring

B8. Open Science Tools for Volunteer Scientists to Move from Data Collection to Data Use


Increasing Inclusivity and Accessibility

Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Accessibility

C1. How to Make Monitoring Information More Accessible

C2. Turning Knowledge into Action: Approaches & Resources to Support JEDI Efforts

Engaging underrepresented and underserved communities and those with disabilities

C3. Building Connections with Underrepresented and Underserved Communities

Promoting environmental justice and addressing systemic inequities

C4. Water Challenges for Underrepresented Groups in Suburban and Urban Communities

C5. Initiatives to Build a More Diverse and Inclusive Workforce in the Monitoring Community


Contaminants and Source Tracking

Naturally Occurring Contaminants of Concern

D1. Managing Metals: Arsenic, Aluminum, Selenium, and Copper

D2. Wildfires and Land Use Change: Mobilization of Sediment, Metals, and Sludge

D3. Disentangling the Impacts of Naturally Occurring Contaminants on Surface and Groundwater Quality

Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) (freshwater & marine)

D4. Cost-Effective Monitoring of HABs: Developing HAB Monitoring Plans for Recreational Waters

D5. Tools for Forecasting, Predicting, and Monitoring HABs

D6. HAB Toxins and Related Factors for Analysis of Risk, Prediction of Vulnerability, and Management of Exposure

D7. HABs: Moving from Monitoring and Advisories to Assessments, Listing and TMDLs

Nutrients

D8. Effective Strategies for Communicating Nutrient Issues to the PublicPage 3 of 4

D9. Tools and Tips for Tracing Nutrient Contamination Back to Sources

D10. Using Nitrate Sensors to Increase Coverage of Nutrient Monitoring

Contaminant Movement Through Watersheds

D11. Micropollutants: Approaches for Monitoring and Reduction

D12. Impacts of Salt Contamination: What Parameters Should Be Monitored?

Persistent Toxic Contaminants

D13. PFAS: Monitoring and Assess Effects in Aquatic Ecosystems

D14. Toxic Contaminant Risks in Urban Environments (e.g., pharmaceuticals, road salt)

D15. Passive Samplers for Contaminants: Strengths, Limitations, and Case Studies

Aquatic Debris

D16. It’s Everywhere! Microplastics in the Environment

D17. Outreach and Education to Prevent Aquatic Debris

Emerging Contaminants

D18. What do we know about 6PPD-Quinione?

Source Identification and Fingerprinting

D19. Atmospheric Deposition: Unseen Source Contamination Beyond the Watershed

D20. Microbial Source Tracking at Recreational Beaches


Open Data Life Cycle

FAIR (Findable/Discoverable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) and CARE (Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, and Ethics) Data Principles

E1. Leveraging APIs to Manage, Mine, Share, and Visualize Data

E2. Tools, Tricks, and Techniques for Furthering Data Reusability

E3. Using Python to Acquire, Clean, Manage, and Display Data

Secondary Use of Publicly Available Data

E4. How to Disseminate Data and Encourage Its Use by the Public

E5. Sharing Water Quality Concepts with Children from BIPOC Communities

E6. Exploring the Challenges of Using Data to Compare Water Quality Among States or Across Jurisdictions

Moving from Data to Actionable Information

E7. Data Wrangling: Using R to Edit, Process, and Create Clean Datasets

E8. Aggregating Datasets, Protocols, and Programs With a Focus on Data Comparability

E9. Using Computational Tools to Identify Trends & Anomolies: Creating Your Science Story

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

E10. Using AI to Help Process, Identify, and Quality Assure Taxonomy Analyses

E11. AI/ML Techniques to Better Manage Environmental Data and for Analyses

E12. AI for Document Writing: Saving Time and Juggling Ethical Considerations


Measuring Success

Effectiveness Monitoring

F1. Identifying, Measuring, and Integrating Ecosystem Services or the Economics of Clean Water

F2. Communicating the Value of Monitoring: How to Explain Impacts of Cleanup and Restoration Activities using Data

F3. Monitoring Design to Separate Management Outcomes from Other Factors

Water Quality Trends

F4. The Importance of Considering Discharge in Water Quality Analysis

F5. Landscape and Legacy Effects: Timber Harvest, Land Management, and Wildfire Impacts on Water Quality

F6. How Long Do You Keep Collecting Trend Data? When Do You Add or Subtract Parameters?

Lessons Learned in Water Monitoring

F7. Tips and Tricks for Making Field Data Processing Easier and Less Error-Prone

F8. Unique Ways to Deploy Field Equipment and Examples of In-the-Field Problem Solving

F9. Building QA/QC Into Your Project from the Field to the Laboratory


Local (Green Bay Watershed) and Regional (Great Lakes and Midwest) Monitoring

G1. Examples of Great Lakes Monitoring &Restoration Projects

G2. Urban Stream Restoration: Successes and Challenges

G3. Next-Generation Great Lakes Challenges