News

• Grassy Narrows Chief says federal funds to fix water crisis 'not flowing' - Huffington Post Canada, Lalita Bharadwaj
• Meewasin valley Authority to close interpretive centre - CBC Saskatoon, Toddi Steelman
• Saskatoon's Meewasin Valley Centre to close in July - Global Saskatoon, Toddi Steelman
• Meewasin Valley to close interpretive centre, provincial budget blamed - CTV Saskatoon, Toddi Steelman
• Meewasin valley shutting the doors -  Saskatoon Homepage, Toddi Settlement
• Climate change and wild weather - U of S News, John Pomeroy
• Three years later, lessons being learned from the 2013 flood - Calgary Herald, John Pomeroy
• Snow studies examine causes of 2013 flood - Rocky Mountain Outlook, John Pomeroy
• Climate change and wild weather - John Pomeroy, Phys.org

Publications

Publication on Prairie Precipitation and Temperature Changes

GIWS affiliate Elvis Asong has co-authored a paper with M.N. Khaliq and Howard Wheater, "Projected Changes in Precipitation and Temperature over the Canadian Prairie Provinces using the Generalized Linear Model Statistical Downscaling Approach," which has been published in theJournal of Hydrology. 

Elmira Hassanzadeh Published inAdvances in Hydrology

GIWS member Elmira Hassanzadeh has had a publication based on her PhD research, completed under the supervision of Amin Elshorbagy and Howard Wheater, accepted in Advances in Water Research. The article, "A risk-based framework for water resource management under changing water availability, policy options, and irrigation expansion," can be read in full here.

Future Drought Risk for Canadian Prairies in Climate Dynamics

SENS student and GIWS student member Badrul Masud has had a publication based on his PhD research, completed under the supervision of Naveed Khaliq and Howard Wheater, published in Climate Dynamics. The article, “Future changes to drought characteristics over the Canadian Prairie Provinces based on NARCCAP multi-RCM ensemble,” can be read in full here.  

John Pomeroy Discusses Flames and Flooding

GIWS member John Pomeroy has been featured on the U of S news website discussing his thoughts that 2016 may be a year of both wildfires and flooding, according to his research. Pomeroy has also found media attention in the Calgary Herald and the Rocky Mountain Outlook due to his work on the 2013 floods in Alberta. 

Announcements

Michael Kehoe to Speak at CSIRO in Australia

GIWS affiliate and postdoctoral fellow Michael Kehoe is going to be an international guest at a workshop on predicting harmful algal blooms at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial research Organization (CSIRO) in Canberra, Australia. He will be talking about how monitoring buoys and models can be integrated to predict harmful blooms, using experience gained from his work with GIWS and the University of Saskatchewan as part of a collaboration with EAWAG in Switzerland. The latter is funded by a Capacity Building Competition Award awarded to Michael by Howard Wheater in 2015.

Jeff McDonnell Presented with Prestigious Hydrology Award

GIWS Associate Director Jeff McDonnell was on-hand in Paris last week, where he was presented with the IAHS award at the Kovacs Colloquium. Congratulations to Jeff from everyone here at GIWS. 

Doug Clark Chu äyì ätlʼet Project Receives Funding

A project led by Doug Clark, professor at the School of Environment and Sustainability, adjunct professor with the Yukon College and GIWS member, that explores traditional knowledge and environmental stewardship has received funding through the Community and College Social Innovation Fund (CCSIF).

The project, Chu äyì ätlʼet (The Water In Me): Collaboratively Developing a Water Strategy for the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations' (CAFN) Traditional Territory, Yukon, looks at the need for applied social science research in order to document, understand, and fully integrate community values and perspectives on water across the traditional territory of the CAFN, a self-governing First Nation located in the southwest Yukon and adjacent northwestern B.C.

The funding for the project, a partnership between the Yukon College, CAFN, the University of Alberta and the University of Saskatchewan, was part of $7.4 million in federal support.

CCRN publish poster on 2013 Alberta flood

In June 2013, fi­ve people lost their lives when a combination of heavy rainfall and rapidly melting alpine snow triggered severe flooding in the Oldman, Bow and Red Deer River basins of Alberta and the Elk River basin of British Columbia, Canada. 

The CCRN has since published a summary poster describing those devastating events and some of the lessons learned. 

GIWS Researchers awarded $286,100 in NSERC support

Three Global Institute for Water Security researchers have received a $286,100 boost in funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). The funds will support projects ranging from water quality monitoring to flood forecasting. 

Karl-Erich Lindenschmidt’s “Ice-jam flood forecasting and ice-jam flood risk assessment” and Saman Razavi’s “Development of a new framework for watershed systems analysis and modelling under climate and environmental changes” were both awarded grants covering a span of five years under the Discovery Grants Program. 

Tim Jardine received a grant under Research Tools and Instruments for his project “Detecting hot spots and hot moments in river health by combining real-time water quality monitoring and citizen science.”

GIWS member hits research milestone

Since July 29, 2014, Kim Janzen, lab manager and isotope technician for the McDonnell Watershed Hydrology Lab has analyzed a milestone number of over 20,000 individual water samples. Visit the GIWS website for further details on Kim's journey toward this achievement.

MOST Facility Open House

Come out and see the new Mine Overlay Site Testing Facility as it opens its doors to the public for the first time. Demonstrations will be run throughout the afternoon in order to best highlight to the consulting community what the facility is capable of — on projects dealing with mine cover development solutions, landfill covers, brownfield site decommissioning and geomembrane testing. 2101 - 108th Street, 1:00 p.m.

Howard Wheater of GIWS speaks on water security at international lecture series 

Howard Wheater, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Water Security, director of the Global Institute for Water Security and SENS professor, delivered a talk entitled “Water security and the science agenda" at the 2016 Schultz Oration & Flinders Gold Series Public Lectures at Flinders University in Adelaide.

The talk proposed a large-scale catchment-based observatory can be used to achieve the goals of trans-disciplinary science integration, inclusion of humans and their activities as endogenous components of water resource systems and translation of science products into user-focused decision.

Later this month, Wheater will be on hand at 2016 Cuahsi Biennial Symposium to deliver an address entitled Integrated Observation, Prediction, and Management of Water Resources in a Changing World: Big Data Opportunity or Paradox? That event takes place on Tuesday July 26 at the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, USA.

IMII Invests in U of S Engineering Research Featuring GIWS Member

The International Minerals Innovation Institute (IMII) and University of Saskatchewan (U of S) are teaming up to advance knowledge of deep groundwater systems. Grant Ferguson, associate professor in the U of S Department of Civil and Geological Engineering and GIWS member, is lead investigator of the project.

Visiting Professor at GIWS

Paolo Burlando will be visiting GIWS July 4 – 14, taking up office at NHRC 1221. His research covers many fields, including work as an individual and group leader in water resources planning and management, rainfall field analysis and hydrologic extreme forecasting and prediction, among others. Please join the rest of the GIWS in welcoming Paolo to NHRC.