The 2016 National Water and Hydraulic Fracturing Survey report summarizes the methods, results and observations of a survey that was conducted in 2015 to identify national and region-specific priorities for water and hydraulic fracturing activities in Canada.
The 2015 Water and Hydraulic Fracturing report takes a high-level look at where the knowledge base is relative to the key questions being asked. The report highlights the critical work done to assess the state of the knowledge relative to decision-making; where its lack is most impacting progress; and the capacity to advance knowledge priorities [...]
The rapid development of shale gas resources in British Columbia's northeast from 2008 to 2011 created conflict with Indigenous nations where these activities occurred. This project investigated opportunities and conditions for water governance innovation in the Horn River Basin.
Using both Indigenous and Western knowledge in integrative ways is being increasingly recognized as an approach to address these serious problems but to date, there has not been a systematic review of what has been done to determine what has worked, what has not, and the reasons why. Thus, the goal of this Integrative Knowledge [...]
Climate change will result in increasing frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall events, yet IDF curves currently in use across Canada do not account for these impacts. As a result, infrastructure built today will not be able to accommodate future extreme rainfall conditions, resulting in increased risk of failure. The “Intensity-Duration-Frequency under Climate Change” (IDFCC) [...]
1. An economic-hydrologic optimization model was used to estimate the cost of abating nitrate leaching into groundwater using non-traditional best management practices (BMPs) on potato farms in Prince Edward Island. By varying the targets for nitrate abatement for hypothetical farmers on both low and high quality land, the model determined which BMPs were least-cost for [...]
Research on the impact of emerging substances of concern (ESOCs) in the context of biosolids land application is scare and where available, mostly limited to plants. Additionally, many of the existing studies focus on single species bioassays and use external additions of ESOCs (spiking experiments) and/or use biosolids application rates that are not environmentally relevant. [...]
Water-related problems that disproportionately impact many Indigenous communities across Canada are often a matter of environmental injustice and the failings of colonial structures and policies. Western science and technology have been applied to these water issues in attempts to rectify them, but these fixes are not working. Integrative approaches that attempt to implement Indigenous and [...]
As of April 2016, there are over 157 drinking water advisories in 111 First Nation communities in Canada. For decades, decision makers at the federal level focused on providing technical solutions through new treatment plant infrastructure. However, many now believe that technical solutions that do not meaningfully incorporate a community’s perspective and local knowledge will [...]
To understand the physical and chemical mechanisms regulating lead dissolution in drinking water distribution systems, this project included a detailed analysis of solid lead corrosion scales harvested from lead pipes from communities with different water quality characteristics, dissolution experiments of pure lead species and lead corrosion scales, and continuous pipe loop dissolution experiments using pipes [...]