The
Water
Institute
is
pleased
to
announce
that
two
research
teams
have
been
awarded
funding
in
the
recent 2021
seed
grant
competition.
The
Water
Institute’s
seed
grant
program
was
initiated
in
2014
to
stimulate
interdisciplinary
collaboration,
international
partnerships,
and
to
encourage
the
development
of
research
proposals
that
tackle
increasingly
complex
global
water
issues.
This
year’s
seed
grant
projects
include
diverse
initiatives
and
collaborators:
Supporting
decisions
about
groundwater
extraction
for
irrigation
with
modern
economic
risk
assessments
Primary
Applicant: Andrea Brookfield, Department
of Earth
and
Environmental
Sciences
Co-Applicants:
Margaret
Insley, Department
of Economics
Chengguo Weng, Department
of Statistics
and
Actuarial
Science
The
team
will
explore
the
application
of
risk
management
strategies
developed
in
the
finance
literature,
in
particular
the
use
of
conditional
value
at
risk
(CVAR), to
decisions
about
groundwater
extraction
for
agriculture. More
specifically,
the
seed
grant
will
be
used
to
develop
a
decision-making
framework
using
CVAR
to
characterize
the
risk-return
tradeoff
of
groundwater
extraction
in
an
agricultural
context.
The
team
will
develop
this
framework
focusing
on
two
case
studies:
1)
irrigation
in
the
severely
depleted
High
Plains
Aquifer
in
Kansas;
and
2)
expanding
irrigation
in
the
Saskatchewan
River
watershed
in
the
Canadian
Prairies.
Data
fusion
and
analysis
to
predict
overland
flow
flood
risk:
establishing
a
proof
of
concept
Primary
Applicant: Derek
Robinson, Department
of Geography
and
Environmental
Management
Co-Applicants:
Bruce MacVicar, Department
of Civil
and
Environmental
Engineering
Chul
Min
Yeum, Department
of Civil
and
Environmental
Engineering
Michael
Drescher, School
of Planning
The
team
will
use
the
seed
grant
to
support
work
being
undertaken
by
the
City
of
Kitchener
to
restore
Montgomery
and
Shoemaker
creeks,
which
will
include
“daylighting”
and
reconfiguring
water
channels,
installing
new
recreation
areas,
and,
in
collaboration
with
a
local
NGO
(
Reep
Green
Solutions),
implementing
a
major
educational
and
assistance
campaign
to
encourage
property
owners
to
implement
precipitation
catchment
features.
The
proposed
seed
grant
will
be
used
to
1)
create
a
proof
of
concept
showcasing
how
street-view
data
can
be
used
to
identify
locations
of
flood
risk,
2)
collect
baseline
data
prior
to
the
modification
of
both
the
natural
and
human
system,
3)
identify
critical
properties
for
stormwater
retention
features,
and
4)
develop
a
working
relationship
with
potential
partners
for
future
proposal
collaboration.
Congratulations
to
both
of
these
research
teams.
