Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

Funding is requested for a field instrumentation system that is designed to provide a set of measurements critical to the monitoring and modelling of ice processes and winter water quality in rivers. Understanding and accounting for the impacts of river ice is essential when designing river engineering works, modelling winter water quality, predicting ice jam flooding and predicting river ice thicknesses. Progress in this area has been impeded by a lack of field data due to the challenges of conducting field work in winter on northern rivers. The proposed system will collect field data that is needed to significantly increase our understanding of key river ice processes and it will also allow existing numerical river ice process models to be assessed and improved. It will also facilitate the development of a numerical model capable of accurately simulating the hydraulics, ice processes and water quality in northern ice-affected rivers. The following knowledge gaps will be addressed utilizing the requested equipment:    �Inadequate knowledge of frazil ice generation, transport and evolution in rivers.    �Unknown accuracy of current numerical models when simulating most river ice processes.    �Primitive way that existing water quality models account for river ice, particularly during the more dynamic freeze-up and breakup periods.    � Scarcity of field measurements of crucial parameters needed to simulate ice jam flooding such as river discharge and ice jam thickness.    �A lack of clear, practical guidelines for estimating ice thickness in various design scenarios. The requested equipment will upgrade and/or replace aging (10-15 years old) existing instruments. Repeated deployment in the harsh conditions during the fall/winter in northern rivers results in damage to and loss of instruments. The quality of training of 11 PhD, 10 MSc and 12 BSc students plus 2 PDF's will be significantly improved through acquisition of this equipment. The requested measurement system will allow us to continue collecting novel field measurements of river ice processes. There are no other research teams in the world with similar capabilities indicating that river ice research at the U of A is truly at the leading edge of the field. A delay would not allow us to maintain this competitive advantage and would adversely impact the research projects of numerous HQP.