Water Security

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The world’s water resources are threatened as never before by climate change, overuse, land use changes, and pollution. Across Canada, there are increasing concerns for long- term water quality and supply both for public consumption and to support industry, agriculture, and resource development. This CERC, led by one of the world’s foremost water scientists, is an unparalleled opportunity for Canada to assume global leadership in developing new solutions to critical problems facing global and domestic water security. Capitalizing on world-class facilities and a unique breadth of expertise among more than 100 faculty and student researchers, the CERC will develop a new interdisciplinary field (“ecotoxicohydrology”) linking ecology, toxicology, and hydrology. This new science will be used to probe complex water/land/climate interactions to improve water use and management, advance water policy, and provide new tools for environmental risk assessment and remediation applicable to all types of natural resource development. Resulting new technologies and state-of-the-art modelling tools will address a wide variety of industrial and social needs including water stewardship, drought management, impacts on fishing and trapping industries, oil sands reclamation, and mine site waste management. A new CERC-led Institute for Water Security, which will draw on natural, health and social sciences and applied sciences, will explore climate change impacts on water security, land management in the face of environmental change, and sustainable resource development, using key Western Canadian river and lake sites as case studies applicable to many water security situations globally. Issues to be addressed include pollutant impacts on human health, water allocation between upstream and downstream users, and balancing competing industrial and agricultural needs. The CERC will provide unprecedented research opportunities for Canadian and international students in new holistic science, ecosystem modelling, and policy development, training the next generation of water scientists to better ensure the world’s water security. See: www.usask.ca/water