Grant: Alliance Grants

Clean water supports healthy ecosystems, communities, and economies. However, in many regions of the world, including in our country, water quality is increasingly under pressure. Numerous long-term drinking water advisories remain in effect on First Nations' reserves, algal blooms are fouling our lakes, and Canadian cities are coping with more frequent floods that mobilize peak loadings of pollutants. Intensifying forest fires, changes in rainfall and snowfall, and permafrost thawing are further amplifying risks to both aquatic life and human water uses. The multifaceted challenges facing water quality call for adaptive management strategies supported by open access data that are readily transformed into actionable knowledge. The proposed CLAWAVE project will produce a user-friendly toolkit that automates the discovery, extraction, consolidation, treatment, transformation, analysis, and visualization of water quality parameters, water flows, and chemical loads in watersheds. CLAWAVE's advanced computational and visualization capabilities will be illustrated by applying them to (1) predict the watershed nutrient loads driving algal blooms in Lake Winnipeg, (2) assess the risks to water quality of northern rivers and lakes associated with permafrost thawing, and (3) estimate the changing discharge of dissolved organic carbon to the Arctic Ocean by Canadian rivers. CLAWAVE's web-based applications will support the design of long-term strategies to manage the adverse effects of water quality deterioration in Canada. CLAWAVE's storytelling and visualization capabilities will make water quality data visible and interpretable to all Canadians and, hence, enhance public participation in water quality monitoring and governance. Overall, CLAWAVE will strengthen Canada's global water research leadership.