Integrating Environmental Water Research Across Multi Scales and Disciplines
Water is our most precious natural resource. All human activities, from agriculture and industrial processes to domestic uses, depend on water of sufficient quantity and quality. This is also true for natural ecosystems. In contrast to highly visible water quantity stressors, such as flash floods and prolonged droughts, changes in water quality are often more gradual and more difficult to detect, and their cumulative impacts more difficult to predict and manage. Water quality deterioration, however, poses more pervasive and chronic risks to the economy, human health and the ecological life-support systems of the planet.
Water quality degradation is a global phenomenon. In Canada, for example, harmful and nuisance algal blooms are a persistent problem for many freshwater bodies, including the iconic Laurentian Great Lakes, while many of our First Nations communities still live under drinking water advisories. Globally, awareness is also growing that climate change adaptation must be an integral part of planning and implementing effective water management policies and practices.
For general inquires about the Ecohydrology Research Group, please email ecohydrology@uwaterloo.ca.
News
New paper co-authored by ERG researchers published in Frontiers in Environmental Chemistry
Bingjie Shi, Stephane Ngueleu, Fereidoun Rezanezhad, Stephanie Slowinski, Geertje Johanna Pronk, Christina Smeaton, and Philippe Van Cappellen of the Ecohydrology Research Group co-authored a paper titled “Sorption and Desorption of the Model Aromatic Hydrocarbons Naphthalene and Benzene: Effects of Temperature and Soil Composition”, which was recently published in Frontiers in Environmental Chemistry.
ERG Data Management Plan released as exemplar by Portage Network
The Canadian Association of Research Libraries’ Portage Network has released 9 Exemplar data management plan (DMPs). Among exemplar DMPs is the Data Management Plan for the Ecohydrology Research Group, the first for the University of Waterloo that is publicly available.
Waterloo-Technion Research Partnership Showcase Event
On October 22, the University of Waterloo’s Office of Research and the Office of Advancement organized a showcase event to celebrate the progress of the University of Waterloo and Technion partnership, which has been supported through the Schwartz-Reisman Foundation beginning in 2014.