Changing Cold Regions Hydrology

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This Changing Cold Regions Hydrology proposal is guided by broad concerns over the impacts of global warming on cold regions hydrological processes and the resulting impacts on ecosystems and water resources including flooding and drought.  Cold regions headwater catchments are the primary sources of freshwater for Canada and most of their runoff comes from snow and ice melt.  Snow and ice melt are also the most sensitive parts of the hydrological cycle to climate warming.  Advances in 1) observational technology from airborne drones and catchments instrumented with research weather, snow and streamflow stations, 2) computing power from the development of high resolution atmospheric and hydrological modelling platforms that can take advantage of advances in high-performance computing, 3) rapid change in the snow and ice components of Canadian hydrology at the same time as 4) forestry and agricultural practises are poised to shift, have created the urgent need, clear opportunity and new capability to improve the predictability of cold regions water resources under change. Therefore this project focusses on the overall objective of determining the hydrological mechanisms that govern the response of headwater catchments to climate and land use change and better predicting the implications for downstream water resources. It has specific objectives of 1) better understanding and predicting glacier and snow hydrology, 2) better measuring and predicting hydrology in the forested and agricultural zones and 3) using computer models of climate and hydrology to predict the hydrological response to climate change in Canadian headwater catchments that govern the water resource supply to river basins. The research accomplishes this by a combination of field studies in 10 instrumented catchments in the Canadian Rockies, North and Prairies and intensive computer modelling and prediction that is guided by what is learned from field observations.  The observational methodology is aided by previously funded Canadian Rockies Hydrological Observatory and the Airborne Cold Regions Observatory capital grants from CFI and previous RTI instrument grants from NSERC that have provided fully operational instrumented research catchments and airborne drones with laser altimeters, thermal, optical and hyperspectral imagery.  The study is also aided by the CFREF Global Water Futures and Canada Research Chairs programs which provide technical, logistical and modelling and logistical help along with specialized laboratories for the students working on this project.  The results will document the dramatic impacts of the loss of cold on Canadian hydrology and help point the way to sustainable water management for our future, warmer, more variable and possibly wetter climate.  It emphasizes the roles of graduate students in discovery and encourages equity, diversity and inclusion in its approach to training HQP through teamwork approaches in fieldwork, modelling and analysis.