News

For one week in September, graduate students in the Collaborative Water Program (CWP) step outside of the classroom and gain hands-on learning experience from local water experts and community members in the Grand River Watershed. Bringing together graduate students from all six University of Waterloo faculties, the CWP provides a unique interdisciplinary learning environment for future water leaders.

In a number of projects and proposals, architects and urban planners are working with water instead of against it.

There are more ways to work with water than mitigating flood impacts.

Two Water Institute members recently attended, and participated in, the 8th IWA Membrane Technology Conference and Exhibition (IWA-MTC) for Water and Wastewater Treatment and Reuse in Singapore. The 8th IWA-MTC brought together scientists and application engineers, providing a unique platform for professionals in the membrane community to connect and exchange knowledge.

Efforts by farmers to reduce the amount of fertilizer that reaches drinking water sources can take years to have a positive impact, according to a recent study from the University of Waterloo.

The study found that that, depending on the type of terrain, efforts to reduce algae-causing nutrients such as nitrogen from reaching water sources such as the Great Lakes and can take decades to bear fruit.

The following story was written by Sabrina Li, water student and MSc Candidate in the Department of Geography and Environmental Management at the University of Waterloo.

The Water Institute is thrilled to announce that David Blowes, professor in Waterloo’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Taking action to adapt to climate change will help protect the health, well-being, and prosperity of Canadians and manage risks to communities, businesses, and ecosystems. Preparing for the effects of climate change before they happen will make our communities stronger and healthier for this generation and the next. That’s why the Government of Canada is making significant investments to help communities build their resilience to climate change as a key part of our plan to address climate change.

Three short huts with solar panels on them sprout in Bob McIntosh’s wheat field near St. Marys, Ont.

Inside the huts are monitoring equipment that goes right to the tiles that systemically move water from his farm. His farm is one of six across Ontario with the monitoring equipment that allows University of Waterloo researchers to study how water, and especially the phosphorus in it, flows off of farms.

Two of University of Waterloo’s graduate students from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, both supervised by Water Institute member Monica Emelko, were recognized this summer by the American Water Works Association (AWWA) for their research. Gemma Charlebois and Andrew Wong are the first and second place recipients, respectively, of the 2017 Academic Achievement Awards for best Master’s thesis.