News archive - February 2023

Monday, February 27, 2023

Q and A with the experts: Who owns the map?

By Media Relations

Within the rapidly changing landscape of data providers, governments must address concerns over who collects and uses data to support the public interest. Water Institute member Dr. Peter Johnson, a geographer at the University of Waterloo, is an expert on spatial data and navigating the complexities of this evolving landscape.

Tuesday, February 21, 2023

Inaugural John Parish Memorial Graduate Scholarship awarded to Faculty of Environment student

Waterloo graduate student Rafaela de Freitas Maltauro, Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Geography and Environmental Management, has been awarded a scholarship honouring one of the pioneers of fluvial geomorphology.

Monday, February 6, 2023

Meet the 2023 GRADflix finalists

Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs (GSPA) has announced their winners and finalists for the 2022-2023 GRADflix competition, which included a strong turnout of grad students from the water sector!

If you are not familiar with the competition, GRADflix is an annual research communication competition where participants create a video or animation no longer than 60 seconds that describes their research.

Thursday, February 2, 2023

Rebecca Rooney on threats to Canada’s wetlands

Water Institute member Rebecca Rooney discusses the value of wetlands and the risk they face in Ontario

By Angelica Marie Sanchez, University Relations

Thursday, February 2 marks World Wetlands Day, an international government agreement acknowledging the importance of wetlands and their ecological role in conserving our ecosystems.

“Wetlands are these climate change superheroes,” says Water institute member Dr. Rebecca Rooney, a wetland ecologist and professor in the Department of Biology. “Wetlands are a portfolio of ecosystem services: including flood prevention, breaking down pesticides, storing large amounts of carbon, and provide habitat for more than 32 per cent of Ontario species at risk who rely on these wetlands to mitigate climate change.”

Thursday, February 2, 2023

Small isolated wetlands are pollution-catching powerhouses

A University of Waterloo press resease.

Small, isolated wetlands that are full for only part of the year are often the first to be removed for development or agriculture, but a new study shows that they can be twice as effective in protecting downstream lake or river ecosystems than if they were connected to them.

Using a new method involving satellite imagery and computer modelling, researchers from the University of Waterloo found that since these small wetlands are disconnected, pollutants such as nitrogen and phosphorous get trapped. This is the first study to use satellite data for estimating nutrient retention.