News

Water Institute member Christine Dow, assistant professor in Waterloo’s Department of Geography and Environmental Management, was awarded an NSERC Canada Research Chair in Glacier Hydrology and Ice Dynamics. The appointment is valued at $500,000 over five years.

Dow’s research interests are focused on the development of subglacial hydrological networks and their impact on ice dynamics on a variety of spatial and temporal scales. She analyzes these systems using a combination of numerical modelling methods and data integration.

Waterloo researchers have found that more than 30 per cent of rural groundwater samples collected in the Nottawasaga River Watershed, including those from domestic wells, show evidence for contamination by local septic system wastewater.

The University of Waterloo is Canada’s most innovative university, according to a reputational survey from Maclean’s magazine.

In late September, a delegation of 12 researchers from the Water Institute participated in the second Sino-Canadian Water Environment Workshop in Waterloo with officials from Environment and Climate Change Canada and the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences (CRAES).

The first workshop, which took place in Hangzhou, China in May 2015, resulted in the adoption of the 2015-2017 China-Canada Bilateral Workplan which identified CRAES and the Water Institute as respective Chinese and Canadian lead contact agencies under the water management theme.

Beating the cold has taken on new meaning for University of Waterloo researchers who are working to help Canadian wastewater treatment plants become more environmentally sustainable.

One of the research group’s projects involves a problem at a plant in the southern Ontario community of Keswick that is subject to stringent discharge limits.

The following story was co-authored by Water Institute member Jeremy Pittman, assistant professor in Waterloo's School of Planning, and originally appeared in The Conversation Canada.

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.