Grant: Canada Research Chairs

Headwaters, which represent the inception point of streams, are vital regions within any catchment owing to their important role as source-areas of freshwater generation. Wetlands located within these headwaters contribute to increased water availability for receiving ecosystems and larger streams and rivers. The Athabasca River, one of North America’s longest and largest free-flowing rivers, drains vast areas of the Canadian Boreal Plain. Wetlands occupy over half of this landscape, where resource exploration and development disturbances are abundant. Processes that control water release (runoff) from any headwater catchment are vital factors in the function, sensitivity, and vulnerability of ecosystems to human and climate-induced environmental change. Understanding and assessing ecosystem health, drinking water quality, and water-related risks such as flooding, wildfire, and industrial development requires a comprehensive understanding of the water environment. The research program of the Chair in Hydrological Sustainability builds on Dr. Ketcheson’s expertise in freshwater generation, with the goal to advance ecosystem sustainability through understanding hydrological processes, working across a disturbance spectrum from natural to reconstructed landscapes. The proposed research program will: 1) resolve the importance of wetlands and headwater catchment reaches for water generation in the lower Athabasca River Basin; 2) investigate the role of disturbance on hydrological sustainability and freshwater availability in the Boreal Plain; and 3) develop and optimize efficient, industry relevant management and reclamation practices in the Alberta oil sands. The field-based approach utilized involves interpretation of water exchanges among ecosystems in relation to streamflow and catchment response to disturbance. The Chair’s innovative headwater catchment observatory combined with new research sites will be studied to evaluate the impacts, risk, and susceptibility of headwater catchments and their ecosystems to natural, human, and climate-mediated disturbances. At the regional scale, results will inform watercourse management decisions through surface water and aquatic health monitoring programs. Knowledge generated by the Chair also has broader implications and applicability beyond the Athabasca River Basin. Determining processes that control runoff is key to managing water availability in catchments and ecosystems throughout North America and abroad.