News archive - August 2021

Monday, August 30, 2021

Op-ed: Australia's water woes offer a preview for Arizona. Will we avoid their mistakes?

Colorado River horseshoe-bend Image by Hans Braxmeier from Pixabay .jpg

Water Institute member Dustin Garrick, associate professor in the Faculty of Environment, School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability and Erin O’Donnell, water law and policy specialist at the University of Melbourne Law School, share their insight and opinion on the looming water shortage in the Lower Colorado Basin.

This op-ed was published by The Arizona Republic on August 29, 2021. Read it on the azcentral.com website.

Thursday, August 26, 2021

Nandita Basu on toxic algal blooms in seemingly pristine waters

Water Institute member Nandita Basu was recently quoted in Health magazine's Mind and Body section. The professor in the Departments of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Civil and Environmental Engineering provided an overview of toxic algal blooms, what promotes their growth and their occurence is seemingly pristine water bodies.

Monday, August 23, 2021

Water Institute member joins editorial team of new PLOS Water journal

Water Institute member Monica Emelko, Canada Research Chair in Water Science, Technology and Policy, and professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has recently been named section editor for Weather and Climate Change for the new peer-reviewed, open access journal, PLOS Water.

Thursday, August 19, 2021

In the media: The new frontier of designing for extreme weather events

Water institute member Elizabeth English had her epiphany moment while seeing the evacuated streets of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The University of Waterloo School of Architecture professor, realized that rebuilding homes with stilts to withstand future floods would fundamentally change the culture and landscape of the city.

Instead, retrofits that would allow the homes to float would keep the integrity of the close-knit communities intact while also keeping the homeowners safe in times of flooding.

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Yucatan climate past informs the global climate present

Photo: Mayan ruins at Tulum by Anna Sullivan on Unsplash

A new study co-authored by Collaborative Water Program graduate Aaron Coutino and Water Institute member Marek Stastna, professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics, shows changes in tides and hurricane activity played a part in upending the Maya civilization centuries ago.