News

The 13th annual Agrifood Economics Congress was held last week 1-3 September in Cartagena, Spain, where agri-food economists, rural development, and environment experts gathered for the hybrid in-person and virtual event.

The mayor of Cartagena and the president of the Polytechnic University of Cartagena gave opening remarks, followed by Water Institute executive director Roy Brouwer, professor in the Department of Economics who was invited to deliver the congress’ first keynote address.

Roy’s presentation examined the relationship between water shortages, increasing costs of irrigation water and food prices, and how factors such as water shortages and environmental deterioration could further impact the cost of food production. 

A new study co-authored by Water Institute member Stephen Evans, professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, will help mining companies better understand the negative societal and environmental impacts of mine-waste disasters, known as tailings flows, and hopefully avoid them. 

This article originally appeared on the Faculty of Science website.

In July 1965, Herbert Fernando, his professor wife Aggie and their two children – which quickly became three – departed Sri Lanka to embark on a new life in Waterloo. Herbert was eager to begin his tenure as associate professor in a newly created Department of Biology at the University of Waterloo. Over the next 33 years, he would go on to create an incredible legacy of teaching that put student experience and student success above all else. Herbert Fernando was a tireless advocate for all student education that incorporated experiential learning outside of the classroom.

In a recently published editorial, Nature Sustainability has suggested that water research has become somewhat stagnant. While the increased pressure of publishing and the role of funding are identified as contributing factors, the editorial contends that as water studies have become increasingly quantified and technical they have become less grounded in historical context and institutional change.

This op-ed was published byThe Arizona Republicon August 29, 2021. Read it on the azcentral.com website. 

Water Institute member Nandita Basu was recently quoted in Health magazine's Mind and Body section. The professor in the Departments of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Civil and Environmental Engineering provided an overview of toxic algal blooms, what promotes their growth and their occurence is seemingly pristine water bodies.

Water Institute member Monica Emelko, Canada Research Chair in Water Science, Technology and Policy, and professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has recently been named section editor for Weather and Climate Change for the new peer-reviewed, open access journal, PLOS Water. 

Water institute member Elizabeth English had her epiphany moment while seeing the evacuated streets of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The University of Waterloo School of Architecture professor, realized that rebuilding homes with stilts to withstand future floods would fundamentally change the culture and landscape of the city.

Instead, retrofits that would allow the homes to float would keep the integrity of the close-knit communities intact while also keeping the homeowners safe in times of flooding.

A new study co-authored by Collaborative Water Program graduate Aaron Coutino and Water Institute member Marek Stastna, professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics, shows changes in tides and hurricane activity played a part in upending the Maya civilization centuries ago.

Water Institute member William (Bill) K. Annable, associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, accepted the challenge, and over the past year, has developed a series of videos sharing his river hydraulics, hydrology and environmental monitoring expertise.