Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

In the context of climate change, the management of water releases downstream of reservoirs to maintain environmental flows is becoming more complex and better tools are required for forecasting and decision-making. This proposal aims at acquiring new knowledge and developing/improving tools for reservoir management in the context of climate change, in order to mitigate the impacts of potential increased water temperature on fish. The approach is based on three sub-components: 1) Improve and adapt hydrological, hydraulic and water temperature models to the context of reservoir management. 2) Acquiring new key knowledge on the physiology and temperature requirements of three important fish species that are present in the Nechako system, where this study is taking place. 3) Use climate change scenarios to anticipate potential changes that may be required in the management of reservoir water releases. The benefits for the Canadian industry include insights that will be gained from a first multi-species study of water temperature requirements in an important managed watershed in Western Canada, improved modelling tools for flow and water temperature management and training of highly qualified personnel with cross-disciplinary experience.