News

The Water Institute and Students of the Water Institute Graduate Section (SWIGS) hosted their annual World Water Day Celebration on Tuesday, March 22.

In a mix of virtual and in-person events, eight high-profile groundwater experts and two environmental justice advocates addressed hundreds of attendees around Canada and beyond.

Amid rising oil prices stemming from sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, the Canadian government is pressing Michigan to end its opposition to the transnational Line-5 pipeline. Water Institute member professor Grant Gunn explains the environmental concerns regarding the pipeline being situated at the bottom of lakes that annually freeze over. 

The Water Institute is pleased to announce that four research teams have been awarded funding in the Winter 2022 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 new research areas that tackle increasingly complex global water issues. 

World Water Day, annually observed by the United Nations on March 22, celebrates water and raises awareness to the billions of people living without access to safe water. This year’s theme is groundwater: making the invisible visible. But what are the current and future challenges facing this natural resource in Canada?

A University of Waterloo Press Release

A study of more than 2,000 streams around North America found that those altered by human activity are at greater risk of flooding.

The study from the University of Waterloo analyzed the seasonal flow patterns of 2,272 streams in Canada and the U.S. and found that human-managed streams – those impacted by developments like dams, canals, or heavy urbanization – had significantly different flow patterns compared to streams in natural watersheds.

The Microplastics Fingerprinting research project team, led by Water Institute member Philippe Van Cappellen, principal investigator,professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Canada Excellence Research Chair Laureate in Ecohydrology, are excited to announce the launch of a new project website. 

The website, and associated project, are in response to plastics pollution, a global and growing environmental hazard with potentially far-reaching consequences for food webs, biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being because their small size which enhances their mobility, toxicity, and capacity to leach potentially dangerous contaminants.

Water Institute member Sherry Schiff, professor of environmental geochemistry in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, has been awarded the 2022 Frank Rigler Award, the highest honour given by the Society of Canadian Limnologists.

Colleagues from the forWater Network have recently published insights from four years of field research. They have released a series of research snapshots highlighting their findings in green technology, cyanobacterial community composition, and managing algal blooms in reservoirs.

Congratulations to Water Institute member Professor Jozef Nissimov from the Department of Biology, who has been awarded John R. Evans Leaders research infrastructure funding from the Government of Canada through the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI).

Throughout history, the first and foremost role of urban water management has been the protection of human health and the aquatic environment. To this end, the practice of (waste)water treatment has maintained a central focus on the removal of pollutants through dissipative pathways.