It is my pleasure to present the third issue of the University of Waterloo Water Institute’s scientific newsletter – WaterResearch. Our vision is to significantly advance the sustainable use and management of water for the benefit of the environment, economy and society. In realizing this vision, we believe that it is imperative to link our researchers and their research to end-users, including governments, the private sector, and civil society, in order to increase the impact of our work. WaterResearch has been designed to make that link, and to facilitate knowledge transfer and exchange with academics, practitioners, students and other water-sector stakeholders interested in, and able to act on, cutting-edge water research. In our spring issue, we aim to illustrate the impactful research that takes place in the Water Institute in Canada and by our scientists around the world.
Our article collection includes the work of John Spoelstra (Earth and Environmental Sciences) which demonstrated how artificial sweeteners can be used as tracers to reveal the extent of septic system effluent in rural groundwater. Groundwater is a vital resource for 11% of Canadian households that rely on water from private wells.
Michael Power (Biology) and his colleagues from Norway draw important lessons from a survey of Norwegian hydropower reservoirs, showing that no one-size-fits-all solution exists to mitigate the environmental impacts of water level regulation on fish populations. These lessons are important for Canada, the third-largest producer of hydroelectricity in the world after China and Brazil, where approximately 60% of all electricity comes from hydropower and all hydropower projects are subject to a comprehensive environmental assessment.
Prateep Kumar Nayak (Environment, Enterprise and Development) works with small fisher communities in India to identify sustainable livelihood transition paths. Recognizing the increasing importance and pressure of demonstrating evidence-based impact, Susan Elliott and colleagues (Geography and Environmental Management) developed a policy evaluation toolkit for small NGOs to better measure the impact of their water-based development projects. Rob de Loë (Environment, Resources and Sustainability) discusses the need for a revised user-oriented diagnostic tool to address complex water governance challenges, distinguishing between internal and external drivers and actors, illustrating that key drivers underlying environmental change may come from outside the water sector.
On a global level, the two remaining articles address the instability of low-angle glaciers in the Himalayas and the delivery of clean water using novel nanotechnologies. The Himalayas are the highest mountain range in the world and the source of some of the world’s major rivers (Indus, Ganges, Tsangpo-Brahmaputra) whose combined drainage basin is home to roughly 600 million people. Stephen G. Evans (Earth and Environmental Sciences) details two massive, recent and catastrophic glacier avalanches and reconstructs their evolution since the 1960s on the basis of remote sensing, mass-balance modelling and field investigations. His findings shed new light on the occurrence of glacier instabilities and underscore the need to revisit documented glacier instabilities worldwide. Finally, Michael Tam (Chemical Engineering) provides an unprecedented comprehensive global review of the potential role of nanotechnology to treat water and wastewater and provide societies with clean water with a sustainable, low-carbon solution.
I am excited to share this innovative and impactful collection of research summaries with you and hope you find them informative.
