Improving management and protection of drinking water supplies and environmental sustainability in urban settings

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Management, protection, and rehabilitation of freshwater ecosystems are central environmental concerns on a global scale. In particular, water managers must deal with rapid urban development and their associated negative consequences on water bodies. This multi-disciplinary project is built around four research axes that all aim at providing urban water managers with additional tools to better monitor and conserve aquatic ecosystems, with a particular focus on urban environments. The purpose of Axis 1 is to develop a watershed-scale assessment of drinking water supply vulnerability by coupling biomonitoring data (algae based) and human activity related risks. Simply stated, the aim of Axis 1 is to combine biological integrity data and land use information, at the watershed scale, to provide municipalities with a more complete portrait of water supply vulnerability. One significant threat to drinking water sources is urban stormwater runoff and Axes 2, 3, and 4 are designed to address this problem. Stormwater retention ponds (SWRPs) are a common mitigation practice to reduce urban runoff and Axis 2 aims to determine their positive outcomes (contaminant retention) and to evaluate the biological integrity of receiving environments upstream and downstream of their effluents. The objective of Axis 3 is to estimate the biodiversity in urban SWRPs, while the aim of Axis 4 is to estimate the monetary value, in dollars, of ecosystem services provided by SWRPs. Ultimately, the goal of this project is to provide an assessment of the benefits that constructed green infrastructures provide to taxpayers, which could then be used as a tool in economic, social, political, and ecological discourse and decision-making. Better management of stormwater runoff is one key aspect of drinking water source protection. The proposed research program will lead to the training of four Master's students, two undergraduate trainees, and one technician.