Water sustainability under climate change and increasing demand: a one water approach at a watershed scale

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Water will become Canada's foremost ecological crisis early in this century (Schindler 2001). A watershed based approach for water management is repeatedly suggested to address water sustainability issues. However, full implementation of such an approach is seldom realized. Achieving a full understanding of total water resources (climate, surface water, shallow and deep groundwater etc.) and their interactions at a watershed scale is a major barrier. We propose to take a one-water perspective to evaluate watershed sustainability under climate change and increasing socio-economic drivers of water demands (agriculture and population) in the Deep Creek watershed (306 km2) located in the Okanagan basin of the semi-arid southern interior of British Columbia. The suitable watershed size and significant water conflicts among water users make this watershedan ideal place for this interdisciplinary research.  A combination of geo-chemistry and integrated watershed modelling (MIKE SHE or others) will be used to quantify the total water resource, surface water - groundwater connections and the watershed response to various water stressors. A Canadian Land Surface Scheme (CLASS) model will be used to improve estimationof spatially varied groundwater recharge for model calibration. In addition, future agriculture water demands will be projected using both environmental and economic drivers (changes in product prices, climate, water pricing policies, and water use regulations) rather than based on simpler trend projections. This study is novel in its quantitative integration of the physical and human dimensions of water use at a watershed scale, enabling adaptive management responses to climate change and increasing demand impacts.