Koksilah Connections: community-engaged stream monitoring and groundwater modeling for water sustainability planning

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Canada is at an unprecedented crossroads of natural resource management and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. Water resources, climate change, reconciliation and environmental monitoring are important topics to all Canadians as evidenced by recent laws regarding UNDRIP, the Paris Agreement and the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada. The 'Koksilah Connections' project represents a unique opportunity with high societal impact aimed at addressing water security. Outcomes from this project will simultaneously advance hydrologic science, engage communities, and support tangible governance changes. The impacts are three-fold: 1) improved understanding of current and future summer river flows through community engaged monitoring and modeling; 2) deeper community engagement with water science, Indigenous knowledge mobilization and watershed governance; and 3) development of a collaborative vision of the value of community science in improving water governance and shared management between Indigenous and Settler governments. This project has a number of novel strategies that address these issues by being data-driven, open, transparent and accountable. Our team and community partners are well situated to make breakthroughs in vested interests and colonial practices. Local partners have been involved in the initiation, design and envisioning of this proposal, and will play an active role in the project with in-kind contributions of staff time. In addition, project results will impact local stakeholders and provincial and national implementers.