Waterloo delegates at the 2023 Canadian Water Resources Association conference.
The Water Institute was well represented at the recent Canadian Water Resources Association conference, which took place from June 18-21, 2023 in Halifax, NS. The delegation included faculty members Bryan Tolson and James Craig, a number of their students, as well as Nancy Goucher, the Water Institute’s Knowledge Mobilization Specialist.
The conference explored a variety of topics related to its central theme of “Rising with the tide: Working together to address water resource challenges.” The value of collaboration within the water sector was on display with a diverse group of attendees that included academics, consultants, government representatives, Indigenous organizations, and other stakeholders involved in water resource management, decision-making, and research across Canada.
This created the perfect backdrop for sharing some of the University of Waterloo’s latest research findings with a key segment of our target audiences. Bryan Tolson and James Craig, for instance, hosted a workshop as part of the conference that included a hands-on demonstration of how to use some of the tools they have created, including BasinMaker software and the team’s multiple available lake-river routing products.
“This was a great opportunity for us to share our new software and tools with the people who we developed them for. Workshop participants told us how much they appreciate not only the tools themselves but also the time that we invest in ensuring that users know how best to apply the tools to make their jobs easier,” says Bryan Tolson, professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Nancy Goucher also gave a presentation highlighting key contributions made by the University of Waterloo to the $78 million Global Water Futures (GWF) research program. As the program nears its completion, Nancy provided a snapshot of some of the solutions developed to address Canada’s freshwater and climate crisis. Among other findings, UW researchers led major advances in recognizing the role of legacy phosphorus in Lake Erie, connecting the use of road salts with signs of lake eutrophication, and advancing covid detection in wastewater. Nancy shared stories about how UW research has enhanced Canada’s capacity to track changes in snow, ice and surface water across the country, developed powerful tools to support modeling efforts, and led the way in terms of promoting data stewardship.
For more about the conference and it’s host organization, visit the CWRA website, https://conference.cwra.org.