News

Forested watersheds supply over two-thirds of the world’s drinking water. Recent headlines across Canada have emphasized that the last decade has seen an increase in the frequency and intensity of wildfires that is threatening these source watersheds, and necessitating more expensive water treatment to address degrading water quality. Given the increasing wildfire frequency in a changing climate, it is important to understand the magnitude of water quality impacts following fire.

Originally published by the Daily Bulletin.

In February 2023, the University of Waterloo Weather Station celebrated 25 years of taking the region's temperature.

On Thursday, May 18, the Weather Station will celebrate the anniversary with an open house at the station and an official renaming ceremony. The station will be renamed the 'Eric D. (Ric) Soulis Memorial Weather Station.'

Congratulations to Water Institute researchers who have been awarded Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council’s (NSERC) Alliance Missions Grant funding as part of the 2022 competition.

The Ecohydrology Research Group (ERG) recently announced  funding of $1,348,540 for a new collaborative research project entitled “Adaptive management of green stormwater infrastructure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from urban watersheds”, which will span 3 years 2023-2026.

Professor Chris Houser will join the University of Waterloo as dean of the Faculty of Science for a five-year term commencing 1 July 2023. Houser succeeds professor Bob Lemieux who has served as dean since July 2015. 

A Waterloo Engineering news story.

A team from Waterloo Engineering has won an international competition aimed at advancing the state-of-the-art in the mapping of sea ice.

The team included professors, researchers and graduate students in a remote sensing research group that is a subgroup of the larger Vision and Image Processing (VIP) Lab within the Department of Systems Design Engineering.

A University of Waterloo press release.

Researchers have developed a new mining technique which uses microbes to recover metals and store carbon in the waste produced by mining. Adopting this technique of reusing mining waste, called tailings, could transform the mining industry and create a greener and more sustainable future.

Dr. Dustin Garrick, Water Institute faculty member, Associate Professor and University Research Chair in the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability, leads an international team that was recently awarded $500,000 in funding through a New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) Special Call for Research for Post-pandemic Recovery. 

Climate, water and energy are highly interdependent. The use of fossil fuels is an important driver behind climate change, the impacts of which most notably manifest themselves through changing hydrological and meteorological processes, such as droughts, floods and heatwaves. These in turn impact our water and energy needs, for example air conditioners or access to clean and safe drinking water. Access to water is impossible without energy, and water itself is a source of energy. The transition to cleaner, renewable energy sources is a crucial step to curb future climate change and at the same time help alleviate the global water crisis.

A message from the Faculty of Engineering.

On Saturday, April 15, the world lost Distinguished Professor Emeritus Raymond L. Legge, a former chemical engineering professor and an irreplaceable member of the Waterloo Engineering community. He was 68 years old.

Flood Impacts, Carbon Pricing and Ecosystem Sustainability (FINCAPES) is a multi-stakeholder feminist initiative, and a collaboration with Indonesia, enabling climate adaptation and conservation of biodiversity