Call for Abstracts

Please join us for the 13th National Monitoring Conference during the week of April 24–28, 2023, in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and in a limited virtual format. This conference provides opportunities for water stakeholders – federal, state, tribal and local water professionals, nonprofits, academia, industry and water consultants, and volunteer and community scientists – to network, develop new skills and partnerships, and exchange information.

The National Water Quality Monitoring Council (NWQMC) is requesting abstracts for oral presentations and posters covering topics related to monitoring rivers and streams, lakes, wetlands, coastal waters, estuaries and groundwater. Abstracts are due September 16, 2022 September 30, 2022.

Due to continued public health uncertainties at this time, submitters should be prepared to be flexible on participation whether that be in person or virtual.

The Conference Program Committee is accepting oral and poster abstracts that fit in the following topics, listed below, and associated proposed conference sessions. There are 48 proposed sessions that may fit your abstract. The proposed sessions and a short description of each are available at https://www.nalms.org/2023nmc/proposed-sessions/.

• 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
• Emerging and Persistent Toxic Contaminants – emerging and/or 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

When completing your abstract submission, please choose up to 3 themes (required) that fit your abstract and up to 3 proposed sessions (required). Also, please provide any keywords that may help categorize your abstract. Abstracts do not need to fit in a proposed session to be considered for the conference. Abstracts for oral and poster proposals must be submitted using the Abstract Submission Form. Abstracts should not exceed 350 words.

All abstracts MUST be received no later than September 16, 2022 September 30, 2022. Authors will be notified by early December 2022 if they have been accepted to present.

Questions?
Please send all abstracts and program development questions to nwqmc@epa.gov.

REGISTRATION INFO is coming this winter to our conference website. For exhibitor and sponsorship information, contact Alyssa Anderson, sponsorship@nalms.org. To be placed on the conference mailing list, contact Philip Forsberg, pforsberg@nalms.org. For general conference information, contact Danielle Grunzke, grunzke.danielle@epa.gov, Candice Hopkins, chopkins@usgs.gov, or Felipe Arzayus, felipe.arzayus@noaa.gov.

For more information on related NWQMC webinars and content, please join the NWQMC listserv by sending a blank e-mail to join-nwqmc@lists.epa.gov.