As
part
of
the
Water
Institute's
WaterTalks
lecture
series,
Robert
Bailey,
Professor
in
the
Faculty
of
Science
at
Ontario
Tech
University,
presents,
"This
year’s
model
–
crafting
better
predictions
in
the
reference
condition
approach
to
bioassessment
of
freshwater
ecosystems."
Register
today.
More
information
Since
the
60s,
bioassessment
of
freshwater
ecosystems
has
evolved
from
indicator
species
and
biotic
indices
to
complex
predictive
models.
However,
Dr.
Bailey
will
argue
that
predictive
modeling
has
stagnated,
with
too
much
attention
on
statistical
correlation
and
not
enough
on
building
strong
conceptual
models
using
big
(e.g.
Landsat
imagery)
and
“small”
(e.g.
taxon
co-occurrence)
data
to
describe
multi-scale
processes.
He’ll
illustrate
this
with
recent
work
on
the
nearshore
Great
Lakes
and
Yukon
streams
RCA
programs.
Speaker
bio
After
doing
his
Bachelors
and
Masters
at
the
University
of
Guelph,
and
a
“pre-doc”
at
the
Institute
for
Environmental
Studies
at
the
University
of
Toronto,
Robert
did
a
PhD
on
freshwater
mussels
at
the
Western
University
in
the
late
80s
and
then
stayed
on
at
Western
as
a
professor
for
more
than
20
years.
During
this
time,
he
worked
with
Trefor
Reynoldson
and
Richard
Norris
to
develop
and
refine
the
Reference
Condition
Approach
(RCA)
to
bioassessment
of
freshwater
ecosystems.
With
colleagues
and
students,
he
has
applied
RCA
in
assessing
the
effects
of
human
activity
on
streams
in
Canada
from
placer
gold
mining
in
the
Yukon
to
intensive
agriculture
in
southwestern
Ontario
to
former
coal
mining
areas
in
Cape
Breton.
After
a
decade
in
senior
university
administration,
Robert
is
back
to
being
what
he
calls
a
“real
prof”
again,
focusing
on
new
ways
to
model
biological
change
in
freshwater
ecosystems
with
big
data
from
remote
sensing
and
GIS.
He
is
currently
a
Professor
in
the
Faculty
of
Science
at
Ontario
Tech
University.
The
University
of
Waterloo
is
committed
to
achieving
barrier-free
accessibility
for
persons
with
disabilities
who
are
visiting,
studying
or
working
at
Waterloo.
If
you
have
questions
concerning
access
or
wish
to
request
accommodations
for
this
event,
please
contact
Allie
Dusome
(adusome@uwaterloo.ca)
