Field instrumentation for source water protection

加拿大的淡水资源是经济和娱乐活动的一个关键要素，尽管资源丰富，但正受到威胁。人们只需思考沃克顿的污染水，马尼托巴和魁北克的洪水，渔业的崩溃，入侵物种的殖民化，全球变暖和重金属污染，就能意识到我们的经济活动和对水的贪婪需求对加拿大自然水生系统的可持续性产生了不利影响。 我们的水资源受到严重威胁，“保护淡水生态系统以及加拿大淡水的质量和可用性可能是国家面临的许多环境挑战中最紧迫的”（加拿大政府-环境状况，2001年）。 女王大学海岸工程研究实验室拥有世界级的水生环境实验室建模历史。 与滑铁卢大学计算机建模人员的新的合作倡议创造了对仪器的迫切需求，以收集现场数据。 该研究工具和仪器应用旨在通过请求仪器来测量湖泊、湿地和沿海海洋中的地下温度、水流剖面、溶解氧、pH值、浊度和藻类浓度来满足这一需求。 实地数据将用于淡水可持续性的诊断研究，并用于驱动和验证能够运行预测模拟以指导管理战略的综合水动力和水质计算机模型。 通过收集实地数据，将能够开展的具体项目包括以下方面的研究：安大略湖的饮用水保护、萨德伯里附近的酸性湖泊、伊利湖的低溶解氧、地表水和地下水之间的连通性、水动力学模型的改进以及人工鱼礁结构和湿地的水流。 将为最多14名研究生和两名博士后科学家提供专门培训，内容涉及收集实地数据和利用计算机模型处理加拿大水资源面临的可持续性问题。

Despite their abundance, Canada's fresh water resources, a key element for economic and recreational activities, are being threatened. One must only ponder the contaminated water in Walkerton, the flooding in Manitoba and Québec, the collapse of fisheries, invasive species colonizations, global warming and heavy metal contamination, to realize how our economic activities and voracious demand for water are adversely impacting the sustainability of Canada's natural aquatic systems.  Our water resources are sufficiently threatened that, "Preserving freshwater ecosystems and the quality and availability of Canada's fresh water is perhaps the most pressing of the many environmental challenges on the national horizon" (Government of Canada - State of the Environment, 2001).     The Queen's University Coastal Engineering Research Laboratory has a history of world-class laboratory modelling of the aquatic environment.  New collaborative initiatives with computer modellers from the University of Waterloo have created an urgent need for instrumentation to allow collection of field data.  This Research Tools and Instruments application seeks to address this need by requesting instrumentation to measure subsurface temperatures, current profiles, dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity and algae concentration in lakes, wetlands and coastal oceans.  The field data will be used for diagnostic research on freshwater sustainability and to drive and validate combined hydrodynamic and water quality computer models that are capable of running predictive simulations to guide management strategies.  Specific projects that will be enabled by the collection of field data include research on: drinking water protection in Lake Ontario, acidic lakes near Sudbury, low dissolved oxygen in Lake Erie, connectivity between surface and ground water, hydrodynamic model improvement and flow through artificial reef structures and wetlands.  Specialized training will be provided for up to 14 graduate students and two post-doctoral scientists, in the collection of field data and the use of computer models to address sustainability issues facing Canada's water resources.