Abstract Sustainable groundwater management is founded on the sound understanding of the effects of water extraction on the aquifer water level and the springs and streams receiving groundwater discharge. Pumping test data are commonly used in extraction licence applications to evaluate aquifer properties and assess the magnitude of storage depletion resulting from pumping. However, a short duration

Abstract The Elbow River is an eastern slope river with headwaters in the Rocky Mountains in Alberta whose major end-use is a critical source of municipal water for Calgary. Overwinter precipitation in its watershed falls primarily as snow and accumulates as snowpack until spring melt. Precipitation falls mainly as rain from May until October. The river is unregulated above Calgary’s water supply reservoir

Abstract Flood frequency plays an important role in the design of hydraulic structures as well as in the management of fisheries and aquatic resources. There are two types of flood frequency analyses, namely the annual maximum series (AMS) analysis and the partial duration series analysis (or peak over threshold, POT). The POT analysis consists of studying discharge data above a specific threshold

Abstract Regional frequency analysis (RFA) aims to estimate quantiles of extreme hydrological variables (e.g. floods or low-flows) at sites where little or no hydrological data is available. This information is of interest for the optimal planning and management of water resources. A number of regional estimation models are evaluated and compared in this study and then used for regional estimation

(2022). Baseline geographic information on wildfire-watershed risk in Canada: needs, gaps, and opportunities. Canadian Water Resources Journal / Revue canadienne des ressources hydriques: Vol. 47, No. 1, pp. 1-18.

Abstract In the Canadian prairies, eutrophication is a widespread issue, with agriculture representing a major anthropogenic nutrient source in many watersheds. However, efforts to mitigate agricultural nutrient export are challenged by the lack of coordinated monitoring programs and the unique hydrological characteristics of the prairies, notably, the dominance of snowmelt in both water flows and

Abstract This study presents the four years’ seasonal baseline hydrological condition of a proposed low impact development neighbourhood in Brantford, Ontario. A comprehensive monitoring scheme including on-site infiltration tests, topographic survey, and instream and groundwater monitoring was conducted on the site and in the adjacent Whitemans Creek and Lewis Drain. The streams’ high flows and storm

Abstract Lac à la Truite (Trout Lake) from the municipality of Irlande (southern Quebec, Canada) suffers from eutrophication and siltation. More than 100 years of mining activities in the Thetford Mines region (1877–2011 CE) and the accumulation of gigantic mining waste piles have often been blamed for these problems, but their real impacts have never been demonstrated. Paleolimnological analyses were

Abstract Three decades of non-market water quality valuation (NMWQV) studies in Canada are analyzed to generate a generic benefits transfer function. Contrary to the large valuation literature focusing on water and wilderness-based recreation in Canada, the number of studies related to water quality is limited. NMWQV studies lack a common design, including consistent adherence to a Canada-specific

(2021). Synthesis of science: findings on Canadian Prairie wetland drainage. Canadian Water Resources Journal / Revue canadienne des ressources hydriques: Vol. 46, No. 4, pp. 229-241.

Abstract Freshwater is a critical natural resource and fundamental to social and environmental activities, including industrial activities, food production, and residential needs. Hence, it is important to understand provincial water supply and demand. However, there are large gaps in provincial and sectoral water use data. This study provides estimates for disaggregated water use by regional subsectors

Abstract Recent summer water shortages in Metro Vancouver are the result of unanticipated changes in the timing of regional snowmelt and rising summer temperatures. Continuing shortfalls over the next century would pose a significant challenge for water supply management decisions. To understand the magnitude of recent drought events in the context of those that happened in the past, we developed a

Abstract Water quality indices are employed by governments largely as a means of communicating the multifaceted nature of water quality and aquatic ecosystem health to the general public. Given the complexity of responsibility for oversight of freshwater quality in Canada, the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) has developed an index based on the severity, frequency, and scope

Abstract Floods are among natural disasters that increasingly threaten society, especially with current and future climate change trends. Several tools have been developed to help planners manage the risks associated to flooding, including the mapping of flood-prone areas, but one of the major challenges is still the availability of detailed data, particularly bathymetry. This manuscript compares two

Abstract In many regions with seasonal snow cover, summer streamflow is primarily sustained by groundwater that is recharged during the snowmelt period. Therefore, below-normal snowpack (snow drought) may lead to below-normal summer streamflow (streamflow drought). Summer streamflow is important for supplying human needs and sustaining ecosystems. Climate change impacts on snow have been widely studied

ABSTRACT Intensity–duration–frequency (IDF) curves need to be reliable to serve as a relevant tool in preventing or reducing potential damage to society. This often requires accounting for the effect of climate change due to evidence of its effect on extreme precipitation. There is a large number of approaches for IDF curve estimation under climate change in the literature; however, a general framework

(2021). List of reviewers for papers received in 2020. Canadian Water Resources Journal / Revue canadienne des ressources hydriques: Vol. 46, No. 1-2, pp. i-i.

Abstract Ontario Conservation Authorities (CAs) were established in 1946 as a partnership between the Ontario provincial government and municipalities. Initially, their purpose was to apply a catchment or watershed approach to provide services and programs to reduce risk from flooding and erosion through an integrated approach to water and land management. In 2021, there are 36 Conservation Authorities

Abstract To date, environmental flow strategies have predominantly been used in cases where a lack of available water has degraded the ecological quality and natural functioning of a river system. In this study, we used environmental flows on an urbanized watershed where flow volumes and flow rates have increased, and large (e.g. 100-year) event return periods become more frequent (∼10 years). Using

Abstract Knowledge of present-day spatial and temporal distribution of water resources is vital for successful water management and policies for planned adaptation to climate change. Measured quantities of hydroclimatic variables, including precipitation, evapotranspiration, streamflow, etc., are the primary indicators of water availability, and indices derived using several such primary variables

Abstract The Lower Red River in Manitoba regularly experiences springtime ice jam flooding, with the most severe events occurring between Lockport and Netley Lake. A database of ice jam events was developed through newspaper archives and historical stage data. Each event was given a severity rating from 1-5, based on the resulting ice jam flood. This facilitated an investigation of ice jam timing and

Abstract Water table management is a recommended practice to maintain crop production in Eastern Canada. Grain corn is highly susceptible under climate change and adoption of better management practices is almost a necessity. Use of controlled drainage with sub-irrigation is one of the practices recommended. A major question is whether farmers would adopt this practice. Since adoption of new practices

Abstract Weather Radar provides real-time, spatially and temporally continuous precipitation data over a large area, and therefore it has been used for operational hydrology in Canada over the past decades. Recently, the focus on weather Radar in Canada has increased since the existing Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) C-band Radar network is replaced with S-band dual-polarized Radar. This

Abstract Large multi-purpose reservoirs serve not only to generate hydropower but to supply water for agricultural irrigation, animal and human consumption and to provide flood control. One of the key factors affecting physical functioning and deteriorating aquatic ecosystems in reservoirs is climate change. For instance, increases in water temperature accelerate chemical reaction rates, decomposition

Abstract Large multi-purpose reservoirs serve not only to generate hydropower but to supply water for agricultural irrigation, animal and human consumption and to provide flood control. One of the key factors affecting physical functioning and deteriorating aquatic ecosystems in reservoirs is climate change. For instance, increases in water temperature accelerate chemical reaction rates, decomposition

Abstract Weather Radar provides real-time, spatially and temporally continuous precipitation data over a large area, and therefore it has been used for operational hydrology in Canada over the past decades. Recently, the focus on weather Radar in Canada has increased since the existing Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) C-band Radar network is replaced with S-band dual-polarized Radar. This

Abstract The goal of this research was to develop a fully automated method to map open water extent that is operationally practical on a national scale. Such a system needs to produce acceptable results in all regions of the country and particularly in the Prairie Potholes Region where understanding water surface dynamics is important for predicting flooding, agriculture/water availability and for

Abstract This study complements the existing literature on disparities associated with Indigenous and non-Indigenous small drinking water systems. The team took a quantitative approach and assessed relationships between seasonality, location, and type of community against the number of drinking water advisories in Saskatchewan for a 4-year period from 2012 to 2016. Generalised estimating equations

Abstract Faced with increasing demands for water withdrawals and a changing climate, the Quebec Department of Environment and Fight Against Climate Change is reviewing its water withdrawal guidelines to protect riverine ecosystems. For Southern Quebec, guidelines currently limit water withdrawals to a maximum of 15% of the 7Q2 (mean 7-day low flow with a return period of two years) during low flow

Abstract Many hydropower companies continue to rely on expert judgment to manage the operations of their reservoirs. Decision-support systems, composed of a hydrological forecasting system and a reservoir model, can ensure that reservoir operation objectives are attained more effectively than by relying solely on expert judgment. In this study, a simple ensemble inflow forecasting system coupled with

Abstract The Athabasca River Basin in Alberta, Canada, is of international significance, and understanding water supply is critically important to the sustainability of the region. In the upper Athabasca River Basin, glaciers covered 272 km2 (2.8% of the watershed) as of 2010, but less than 50 km2 are projected to remain by the end of the twenty-first century. This study investigated glacier contributions

Abstract The development of hydrological models that produce practically useful and physically defensible results is an ongoing challenge in hydrology. This challenge is further compounded in large, spatially variable basins with sparse data, where a detailed understanding of a basin’s hydrological response may be limited. This study presents an iterative and stepwise calibration strategy for model

Lakes and reservoirs have critical impacts on hydrological, biogeochemical, and ecological processes, and they should be an essential component of regional-scale hydrological and eco-hydrological models. This is particularly important in Canada with its tens of thousands of lakes. Past large-scale hydrologic modelling efforts tend to either ignore the impacts of all lakes or explicitly simulate the

Snow water equivalent (SWE) is among the most important variables in the hydrological modelling of high latitude and mountainous areas. While manual snow surveys can directly provide SWE measurements, they are time consuming and costly, especially compared to automated snow depth measurements. Moreover, SWE is strongly correlated to snow depth. For this reason, several empirical equations relating

In this study, small water systems (SWSs) serve a population of less than 5,000. This paper includes responses to a qualitative questionnaire from 66 SWSs (33% out of 200 SWSs) that identify the major problems within these systems across British Columbia (BC). Focusing on four interrelated components of SWSs (water quality issues, treatment and disinfection, water quality monitoring and water governance

Abstract In this study, small water systems (SWSs) serve a population of less than 5,000. This paper includes responses to a qualitative questionnaire from 66 SWSs (33% out of 200 SWSs) that identify the major problems within these systems across British Columbia (BC). Focusing on four interrelated components of SWSs (water quality issues, treatment and disinfection, water quality monitoring and water

A good water quality model needs sufficient data to characterise the waterbody, yet monitoring resources are often limited. Inadequate boundary data often contribute to model uncertainty and error. In these situations, the same water quality model can also be used to determine where sampling efforts are best concentrated for improving model reliability. A sensitivity analysis using a one-at-a-time

Approximately 238,000 to 450,000 Albertans rely on private water wells for their water needs. In Canada, private well owners are responsible for monitoring and maintaining the quality of their water well, yet studies in Alberta indicate that owners do not undertake regular well maintenance or testing. This survey obtained information regarding farming and water well management practices, and drinking

Extreme precipitation events, including probable maximum precipitation (PMP) and probable maximum snow accumulation (PMSA) and 1/100 annual exceedance probability (AEP) values for precipitation (P100) and snow accumulation (expressed in snow water equivalent; SWE100) were analyzed over Newfoundland to compute the projected changes from 1971–2000 to 2041–2070. PMP and PMSA of various storm durations

(2020). Editor’s note. Canadian Water Resources Journal / Revue canadienne des ressources hydriques: Vol. 45, No. 1, pp. 1-1.

(2020). Expression of concern. Canadian Water Resources Journal / Revue canadienne des ressources hydriques: Vol. 45, No. 1, pp. 2-2.

(2020). Comment on: “Escalante-Sandoval, C. and L. Amores-Rovelo. 2017. Regional monthly runoff forecast in Southern Canada using ANN, K-means, and L-moments techniques. Canadian water resources journal 42(3): 205-222.”. Canadian Water Resources Journal / Revue canadienne des ressources hydriques: Vol. 45, No. 1, pp. 3-10.

The development of new, large-scale tools to evaluate water resources is critical to understanding the long-term sustainability of this resource under future land use, climate change, and population growth. In cold and humid regions it is imperative that such tools consider the hydrologic complexities associated with permafrost and groundwater-surface water (GW-SW) interactions, as these factors are

In cold conditions, early winter precipitation occurs as snowfall and contributes to the accumulating seasonal snowpack. In a warming climate, precipitation may occur as rainfall in mountainous areas. Detecting changes during seasonal transitions is difficult because these may encompass changes in timing, magnitude and phase, which may not be consistent between years. In this study, a sampling window

Floods are the most frequent natural disaster in Canada, putting Canadian lives and property at risk. Projected variations in precipitation and temperature are expected to further intensify extreme events, necessitating improved flood planning and water resource management. The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council funded FloodNet project is developing a standardized flood estimation manual

Given growing anthropogenic pressures on water resources and uncertain climatic conditions, sustainable water management using effective demand management strategies will be crucial to tread the path towards sustainable development. This paper makes a contribution to the interdisciplinary realm of water management by designing a flexible tool that overcomes the weaknesses of current extraction charges

Remotely sensed soil moisture measurements from satellite platforms are increasingly reliable, cost-effective and widely available data sources where in situ measurements are unavailable. This research uses the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity mission (SMOS) satellite-derived soil moisture anomalies over a database of 65 watersheds across Canada from 2011 to 2014 to analyze the soil moisture-runoff

Evaluation of the performance of agricultural Beneficial Management Practices (BMPs) intended to protect groundwater resources that may be impacted by the leaching of excess agricultural nutrients is both essential and problematic. Many field-monitoring techniques are hampered by the substantial lag time that often exists between when the BMP is implemented and when a related impact on the groundwater

(2020). List of reviewers for papers received in 2019. Canadian Water Resources Journal / Revue canadienne des ressources hydriques: Vol. 45, No. 1, pp. i-i.

River basin planning in Alberta has relied on the use of computer modeling since the early 1980s. Typical modeling studies rely on a single time step operational framework, where water allocation decisions are made for individual model time steps, without taking into account seasonal forecasts or the corresponding demand hedging rules that are often implemented by farming communities. This kind of

This study aimed to quantify the ability of distributed and lumped hydrological models to use high-resolution precipitation and temperature data to improve streamflow simulation at watershed outlets. To that end, a 40-year, high-resolution, spatially distributed, meteorological dataset was extracted from a 15-km resolution regional climate model simulation (from the Canadian Regional Climate Model

Large rivers provide important ecosystem services to society, yet little is known about patterns and controls of key ecological functions, such as benthic metabolism, in these ecosystems. This study describes patterns of temporal and spatial variation of benthic metabolism (gross primary production (GPP) and community respiration (CR)) in the Saint John River, New Brunswick, Canada; a large, regulated

Surface waters are widely used as sources of drinking water in Canada. The identification of the main sources of pollutants to surface waters, often associated with increasing urbanization, is needed to improve management strategies. We used stable water isotopes (δ18O and δD), and nutrient and fecal coliform mass fluxes to estimate the seasonal contributions of water and pollutants of different inflows

Water is often used for a variety of conflicting purposes. Furthermore, as water is a dynamic resource, its equitable allocation across boundaries often poses problems for involved stakeholders. Integrated water resource management (IWRM) aims to promote the coordinated management of water across all boundaries. In theory IWRM is an effective solution to address multiple conflicting uses: however,

This research examines the extent to which the Clean Water Act (S.O. 2006, c. 22) (CWA) in Ontario, Canada is an example of collaborative watershed governance, with a focus on rural communities. This research also provides lessons for source water governance in Ontario and elsewhere, while contributing to the evolving collaborative governance theory development from the perspective of water governance

Groundwater is considered a reliable resource, relatively insensitive to seasonal or even multi-year climatic variation; however, quantifying aquifer-scale estimates of stress in diverse hydrologic environments is particularly difficult due to data scarcity and the limited methods for deriving stress parameters, such as groundwater use and availability, which can be applied over a large spatial area

(2019). Correction. Canadian Water Resources Journal / Revue canadienne des ressources hydriques: Vol. 44, No. 4, pp. i-iii.

This manuscript, Part II of a climate change impacts assessment series, describes changes in CO2, CH4, and N2O emissions and soil carbon storage on a theoretical farm in the Keremeos Creek watershed under scenarios of historical and potential climate using Holos v3.0.3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions model. The GENerate Earth SYstems Science input (GENESYS) spatial hydro-meteorological model outputs

The current study is Part I of a two-part assessment of climate change impacts on hydrology and farm-level Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. The effects of climate change on spring and summer water supply and spring and summer water demand related to the vegetation cover in the Keremeos Creek watershed in the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS), southern British Columbia, Canada in the time-frame

Although the Laurentian Great Lakes Basin contains the largest global store of fresh water, long-term groundwater storage (GWS) decline has been observed in some aquifers supplying communities that intensely use the resource. We consider a hallmark of effective groundwater use policy to be the regulation of aquifer pumping rates consistent with the physical-environmental determinants of sustainable