News

Canada's current wetland protection efforts have overlooked how the environment naturally protects fresh-water resources from agricultural fertilizer contaminants, researchers from the University of Waterloo's Water Institute have found.

In a recent study, researchers at Waterloo’s Faculty of Science and Faculty of Engineering found that small wetlands have a more significant role to play than larger ones in preventing excess nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilizer from reaching waterbodies such as the Great Lakes.

Climate change is significantly impacting Canada’s water resources. From melting permafrost, to more pervasive algal blooms, to increased flooding, these impacts are only expected to increase in the future. Three professors from the University of Waterloo’s Water Institute have been awarded significant grants to develop new, innovative technologies and to deliver new management approaches to enhance the resilience and adaptive capacity of Canada’s water resources in the face of climate change.

$78 million from the Government of Canada will position the country as a global hub for leading-edge, user-driven water science for the world’s cold regions. The University of Waterloo’s Water Institute will be a key partner on the University of Saskatchewan-led Global Water Futures initiative.