S. R. Pokhrel, Gyan Chhipi-Shrestha, Manuel J. Rodríguez, K. Hewage, R. Sadiq
{"title":"Unfolding ‘big’ problems of small water system performance: a qualitative study in British Columbia","authors":"S. R. Pokhrel, Gyan Chhipi-Shrestha, Manuel J. Rodríguez, K. Hewage, R. Sadiq","doi":"10.1080/07011784.2020.1800517","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07011784.2020.1800517","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In this study, small water systems (SWSs) serve a population of less than 5,000. This paper includes responses to a qualitative questionnaire from 66 SWSs (33% out of 200 SWSs) that identify the major problems within these systems across British Columbia (BC). Focusing on four interrelated components of SWSs (water quality issues, treatment and disinfection, water quality monitoring and water governance challenges), the identified major problems include: insufficient water monitoring programs; inadequate treatment prior to disinfection; insufficient funds to build water infrastructure; high turbidity; iron and manganese in source water; microbial contamination, especially in distribution networks; and high disinfection by-product formation. Based on the findings, the authors recommend implementing efficient water policies suitable for SWSs and strengthening funding support from governments. Developing long-term plans for effective management of water resources, while building strong communication among relevant stakeholders (ie municipal managers, operators and consumers), can also play a significant role in ensuring safe drinking water supplies. The findings can help BC policymakers understand the major problems of SWSs and their root causes.","PeriodicalId":55278,"journal":{"name":"Canadian Water Resources Journal","volume":"45 1","pages":"269 - 286"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2020-08-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/07011784.2020.1800517","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45002337","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jean Odry, Marie-Amélie Boucher, Philippe Cantet, S. Lachance‐Cloutier, R. Turcotte, P. St-Louis
{"title":"Using artificial neural networks to estimate snow water equivalent from snow depth","authors":"Jean Odry, Marie-Amélie Boucher, Philippe Cantet, S. Lachance‐Cloutier, R. Turcotte, P. St-Louis","doi":"10.1080/07011784.2020.1796817","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07011784.2020.1796817","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Snow water equivalent (SWE) is among the most important variables in the hydrological modelling of high latitude and mountainous areas. While manual snow surveys can directly provide SWE measurements, they are time consuming and costly, especially compared to automated snow depth measurements. Moreover, SWE is strongly correlated to snow depth. For this reason, several empirical equations relating snow depth to SWE have been proposed. The present study investigates the potential of artificial neural networks for estimating SWE from snow depth and commonly available data, and the proposed method is compared to existing, regression-based methods. An ensemble of multilayer perceptrons is constructed and trained using gridded meteorological variables and a data set of almost 40,000 SWE and depth measurements from the province of Quebec (eastern Canada). Overall, the proposed artificial neural network-based method reached a RMSE of 28 mm and outperforms by 17% a series of empirical equations for estimating the SWE of an independent set of measurement sites. Nevertheless, all the tested methods demonstrated limits to estimate lowest values of snow bulk density.","PeriodicalId":55278,"journal":{"name":"Canadian Water Resources Journal","volume":"45 1","pages":"252 - 268"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2020-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/07011784.2020.1796817","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45460416","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ming Han, J. Mai, B. Tolson, J. Craig, É. Gaborit, Hongli Liu, Konhee Lee
{"title":"Subwatershed-based lake and river routing products for hydrologic and land surface models applied over Canada","authors":"Ming Han, J. Mai, B. Tolson, J. Craig, É. Gaborit, Hongli Liu, Konhee Lee","doi":"10.1080/07011784.2020.1772116","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07011784.2020.1772116","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Lakes and reservoirs have critical impacts on hydrological, biogeochemical, and ecological processes, and they should be an essential component of regional-scale hydrological and eco-hydrological models. This is particularly important in Canada with its tens of thousands of lakes. Past large-scale hydrologic modelling efforts tend to either ignore the impacts of all lakes or explicitly simulate the behaviour of only the largest lakes in a watershed. This research derives a suite of Pan-Canadian subwatershed-based lake and river routing GIS products at multiple spatial resolutions (average catchment size ranges from 60 to 306 km2 while the number of lakes explicitly represented ranges from 11,000 to 87,000). These publicly available data products supply all the necessary hydrologic routing model inputs, including network topology, subwatershed geometry, channel characteristics (slope, length, roughness, and geometry), and lake characteristics (area, volume, and outlet description), and were derived primarily from the HydroLAKES, HydroBASINS and HydroSHEDS databases. All Water Survey of Canada streamflow gauging stations are used to define subwatershed outlets in the products. The routing product is used to inform a hydrologic routing model in the Raven hydrologic modelling framework. This is the first demonstration of Raven in routing-only mode. As a case study, the Hudson Bay drainage basin (∼40% of Canada) is simulated using GEM-Surf land surface model gridded runoff and recharge as inputs and includes more than 20,000 river reaches and more than 10,000 lakes explicitly represented at an hourly timestep. Uncalibrated streamflows compare reasonably well to measured streamflows at select locations. The sensitivity of the routing model prediction quality to the discretization level for represented lakes is evaluated and shows, for example, that ignoring multiple smaller lakes can have a significant impact on predictions.","PeriodicalId":55278,"journal":{"name":"Canadian Water Resources Journal","volume":"45 1","pages":"237 - 251"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2020-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/07011784.2020.1772116","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48365431","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sensitivity of boundary data in a shallow prairie lake model","authors":"J. Terry, K. Lindenschmidt","doi":"10.1080/07011784.2020.1758215","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07011784.2020.1758215","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract A good water quality model needs sufficient data to characterise the waterbody, yet monitoring resources are often limited. Inadequate boundary data often contribute to model uncertainty and error. In these situations, the same water quality model can also be used to determine where sampling efforts are best concentrated for improving model reliability. A sensitivity analysis using a one-at-a-time approach on a shallow, eutrophic, Prairie reservoir model investigates which boundary conditions are contributing most to variability in the model. The model results show the lake model has greater sensitivity to its catchment processes than to its in-lake processes. Flows are shown to have the greatest influence on model predictions for all water quality variables tested, followed by air temperature. The lake is facing pressure from climate change, and water management decisions. Results indicate defining the water balance accurately will be a crucial factor in future monitoring programs and modelling efforts.","PeriodicalId":55278,"journal":{"name":"Canadian Water Resources Journal","volume":"45 1","pages":"204 - 215"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2020-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/07011784.2020.1758215","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44467383","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
N. Caffrey, D. Hall, J. Invik, E. Cey, S. Gow, S. Cork, K. Pintar, Jessica Popadynetz, C. Valeo, J. Nakaska, N. Neumann, S. Checkley
{"title":"Current practices in private water well management in Rural Central Alberta","authors":"N. Caffrey, D. Hall, J. Invik, E. Cey, S. Gow, S. Cork, K. Pintar, Jessica Popadynetz, C. Valeo, J. Nakaska, N. Neumann, S. Checkley","doi":"10.1080/07011784.2020.1754294","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07011784.2020.1754294","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Approximately 238,000 to 450,000 Albertans rely on private water wells for their water needs. In Canada, private well owners are responsible for monitoring and maintaining the quality of their water well, yet studies in Alberta indicate that owners do not undertake regular well maintenance or testing. This survey obtained information regarding farming and water well management practices, and drinking water preferences among private well owners in central Alberta. Questionnaires, water samples and drilling report information collected from 97 respondents between March 2015 and June 2017 were evaluated. Total coliforms were present (TC+) in 20/97 samples. There were no significant associations between well design and construction characteristics and the presence of TC+. Twenty-four and 20 respondents reported undertaking annual bacterial and chemical testing, respectively. Twenty-five respondents indicated their well had been shock chlorinated within the past three years. Concern about contamination (n = 28) was not significantly associated with increased frequency of water quality testing, well maintenance with shock chlorination, or purchasing of bottled water as an alternative drinking water. There has been little change since 2010 in the uptake of free water testing provided by Alberta Health Services. The organoleptic properties of water reported by respondents indicated shock chlorination might benefit a number of premises. Poultry producers are more likely to test their well water for bacterial and chemical contamination on an annual basis due to mandatory requirements stipulated by the poultry industry. There may be potential for a similar mandatory water testing guideline to be implemented for beef producers in Alberta. There is a need for education programs targeting rural well owners. The Working Well program information packages provided by the Government of Alberta provide an excellent source of information for water well owners. This survey indicates that new ways to disseminate this information to a broader audience are required.","PeriodicalId":55278,"journal":{"name":"Canadian Water Resources Journal","volume":"45 1","pages":"187 - 203"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2020-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/07011784.2020.1754294","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59729638","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mid-21st century anthropogenic changes in extreme precipitation and snowpack projections over Newfoundland","authors":"K. Abbasnezhadi, A. Rousseau, S. Bohrn","doi":"10.1080/07011784.2020.1760140","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07011784.2020.1760140","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Extreme precipitation events, including probable maximum precipitation (PMP) and probable maximum snow accumulation (PMSA) and 1/100 annual exceedance probability (AEP) values for precipitation (P100) and snow accumulation (expressed in snow water equivalent; SWE100) were analyzed over Newfoundland to compute the projected changes from 1971–2000 to 2041–2070. PMP and PMSA of various storm durations were simulated based on the moisture maximization of high efficiency storms. Also, P100 and SWE100 data were calculated based on the frequency analysis of liquid precipitation and snowpack data during each 30-year period. The required meteorological variables, including liquid and solid precipitation, precipitable water content, and snow accumulation, defined over a 50 × 50 km grid, were extracted from an ensemble of six regional climate model simulations provided by the North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program (NARCCAP). Projections indicated that while PMP and P100 are intensifying in the future period, PMSA and SWE100 are declining. This is the first study which quantifies the impact of climate change on extreme-value characteristics of precipitation in Newfoundland. The results of the study can help stakeholders throughout the province to gain a better understanding of the impact of global warming on extreme meteorological events. Such an understanding is prerequisite to build resiliency and understand the uncertainty related to standard probable maximum flood analysis in the region.","PeriodicalId":55278,"journal":{"name":"Canadian Water Resources Journal","volume":"45 1","pages":"216 - 236"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2020-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/07011784.2020.1760140","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41818182","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Participatory water management modelling in the Athabasca River Basin","authors":"D. Marcotte, R. MacDonald, M. Nemeth","doi":"10.1080/07011784.2019.1702103","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07011784.2019.1702103","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Water is often used for a variety of conflicting purposes. Furthermore, as water is a dynamic resource, its equitable allocation across boundaries often poses problems for involved stakeholders. Integrated water resource management (IWRM) aims to promote the coordinated management of water across all boundaries. In theory IWRM is an effective solution to address multiple conflicting uses: however, in practice it is difficult to implement. This paper presents a case-study of an IWRM initiative in which the key component of participatory modelling is played out. Other important processes are integrated as well, such as problem structuring, social learning, and stakeholder engagement. In 2016-2017, approximately 30 stakeholders representing industry, municipalities, environmental NGOs, and federal/provincial government collaborated in order to explore opportunities to achieve sustainable watershed management in the Athabasca River Basin, Alberta Canada. Stress scenarios (including potential changes in climate, land use, and water use) were developed and used to test a series of water management strategies throughout the basin. These strategies were simulated within an integrated modelling tool in a live setting. Through this interactive process, promising strategies for sustainable water management were explored, and a series of recommendations for policy makers were identified. Recommendations include, but are not limited to, identifying areas for land conservation and reclamation priority, establishing in-stream flow need targets, and reducing water navigation limitations in the lower basin. Outlined through this paper, this case-study shows that examples of real-world participatory modelling efforts are in fact possible.","PeriodicalId":55278,"journal":{"name":"Canadian Water Resources Journal","volume":"45 1","pages":"109 - 124"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2020-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/07011784.2019.1702103","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45479025","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"New modeling paradigms for assessing future irrigation storage requirements: a case study of the Western irrigation district in Alberta","authors":"Nesa Ilich, E. Davies, Amr Gharib","doi":"10.1080/07011784.2020.1737237","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07011784.2020.1737237","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract River basin planning in Alberta has relied on the use of computer modeling since the early 1980s. Typical modeling studies rely on a single time step operational framework, where water allocation decisions are made for individual model time steps, without taking into account seasonal forecasts or the corresponding demand hedging rules that are often implemented by farming communities. This kind of modeling often leads to premature depletion of reservoir storage during dry years, producing model results that represent worse decisions than those that irrigators would make by using the rule-of-thumb. This paper critically reviews the current modeling practice, and provides insight into possible improvements in modeling through the use of multiple time step optimization in combination with optimal demand hedging, which is found as part of the model solution. A case study focuses on potential storage expansions in the Western Irrigation District of Southern Alberta. Improvements with the multiple time step optimization approach also shed new light on important water management decisions made in the past and the value of a revised definition of irrigation failure criteria. Finally, the selected modeling approach reveals significant potential for capital cost savings related to future infrastructure development, and suggests that investing in digital infrastructure – better forecasting and reservoir management tools – may be more productive than investment in additional physical infrastructure.","PeriodicalId":55278,"journal":{"name":"Canadian Water Resources Journal","volume":"45 1","pages":"172 - 185"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2020-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/07011784.2020.1737237","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47127141","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Impact of the spatial density of weather stations on the performance of distributed and lumped hydrological models","authors":"J. Martel, F. Brissette, Annie Poulin","doi":"10.1080/07011784.2020.1729241","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07011784.2020.1729241","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This study aimed to quantify the ability of distributed and lumped hydrological models to use high-resolution precipitation and temperature data to improve streamflow simulation at watershed outlets. To that end, a 40-year, high-resolution, spatially distributed, meteorological dataset was extracted from a 15-km resolution regional climate model simulation (from the Canadian Regional Climate Model – CRCM v.4.2.4 driven by ERA40 reanalysis). This dataset was used to feed one distributed and four lumped hydrological models. The five models were calibrated on 192 watersheds located in the province of Quebec (Canada) using five different meteorological network densities of pseudo-stations. These densities ranged from one single station (located at the centre of gravity of the watershed) up to the maximum grid density of 1 station per 225 km2 (15 km × 15 km which corresponds to the CRCM spatial resolution). No significant decrease in validation performance for both types of hydrological models was observed when using any of the tested station densities. Similar results were also obtained when investigating the subsets of 54 smaller (≤2,500 km2) and 84 medium-sized (2,500 < area <10,000 km2) watersheds. However, for the 54 larger watersheds (≥10,000 km2), the decrease in performance was statistically significant for the distributed model when using one single station. While all lumped models showed a noticeable drop in performance only when using a single station, the distributed model was the only model to show a gradual decrease in performance as the network density decreased. These results indicate that when dealing with large watersheds, distributed models could benefit up to some extent from a larger meteorological network density. These conclusions are likely to be relevant to Canadian watersheds with similar physiographic characteristics and hydroclimatic conditions as the ones included in the Quebec database that was studied.","PeriodicalId":55278,"journal":{"name":"Canadian Water Resources Journal","volume":"45 1","pages":"158 - 171"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2020-02-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/07011784.2020.1729241","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46364015","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Climate change impacts on snow and streamflow drought regimes in four ecoregions of British Columbia","authors":"Jennifer R. Dierauer, D. Allen, P. Whitfield","doi":"10.1080/07011784.2021.1960894","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07011784.2021.1960894","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In many regions with seasonal snow cover, summer streamflow is primarily sustained by groundwater that is recharged during the snowmelt period. Therefore, below-normal snowpack (snow drought) may lead to below-normal summer streamflow (streamflow drought). Summer streamflow is important for supplying human needs and sustaining ecosystems. Climate change impacts on snow have been widely studied, but the relationship between snow drought and streamflow drought is not well understood. In this study, a combined investigation of climate change impacts on snow drought and streamflow drought was completed using generic groundwater – surface water models for four headwater catchments in different ecoregions of British Columbia. Results show that, in response to increased precipitation and temperature, the snow drought regime changes substantially for all four catchments. Warm snow droughts, which are caused by above-normal winter temperatures, increase in frequency, and dry snow droughts, which are caused by below-normal winter precipitation, decrease in frequency. The shift toward more frequent and severe temperature-related snow droughts leads to decreased summer streamflow, decreased summer groundwater storage, and longer, more severe summer low flow periods. Moreover, snow droughts propagate into summer streamflow droughts more frequently in the future time periods (2050s, 2080s) as compared to the baseline 1980s period. Thus, warm snow droughts not only become more frequent and severe in the future but also more likely to result in summer streamflow drought conditions.","PeriodicalId":55278,"journal":{"name":"Canadian Water Resources Journal","volume":"46 1","pages":"168 - 193"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2020-02-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48031731","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}