Author Archives: jfw677

USask-led Global Water Futures marks the end of an era and looks to the future

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USask-led Global Water Futures marks the end of an era and looks to the future
Mark Ferguson
Global Institute for Water Security and Global Water Futures
University of Saskatchewan
May 21, 2023

Hundreds of scientists and researchers from across Canada have gathered in Saskatoon for the finale of the world’s largest university freshwater research program, a seven-year initiative led by the University of Saskatchewan (USask).

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Event: Public Lecture with Professor John Pomeroy

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Join us on Sunday, May 7th from 6:00 – 7:00pm for a public lecture with Professor John Pomeroy:

The Hydrology, Snow and Glaciers of the Canadian Rockies in an Era of Global Change

John Pomeroy, Centre for Hydrology, University of Saskatchewan, Canmore, Alberta

The melt of snow and ice supplies freshwater for over half of humanity, and provides a vast proportion of the freshwater available for ecosystems, hydroelectricity, irrigation, industry, and communities in downstream regions.  This water supply is threatened by climate warming which is reducing snowfall and increasing the atmospheric energy available to melt snow and ice.  The Canadian Rockies are the hydrological apex of North America and the source of rivers flowing to three oceans.  Here, over 60% of river discharge is supplied by the melt of snow and ice, and climate warming is proceeding faster than in other parts of the world.  Climate variability is also increasing in these headwaters, and since the turn of the century some exceptionally low river flows and large floods have occurred. To understand these impacts, research by the University of Saskatchewan’s Centre for Hydrology and partners from its base at the Coldwater Laboratory in Canmore, Alberta has focused on increasing our understanding of snow accumulation and melt processes in alpine and forested environments, glacier hydrology, and the role of soils, forests and wetlands in governing streamflow generation.  This understanding has been used to develop computer simulation models of current and future hydrology that can be used for forecasting snowcover, floods and droughts, for prediction of future streamflows and for diagnosing how hydrological, glacier and ecological change are interacting with climate change to produce new behaviours in mountain rivers.  These predictions can be used to develop water management solutions to some impacts of global change.  They also show that resilience of hydrological systems to change is evident, but there remains a substantial risk of crossing tipping points in the near future that may lead to large changes and greater uncertainty in future water supplies.

Sunday, May 7th
6:00 – 7:00 PM
Banff Park Lodge

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Alberta’s snow pack nears record lows for 2023

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Alberta’s snow pack nears record lows for 2023
Sarah Offin
Global News Hour at 6 Calgary
April 13, 2023

It’s the time of year when Alberta usually starts talking about flood forecasts. For details on what’s coming down the pipes, river forecasters carefully monitor how much snow we can expect to melt from higher elevations. As Sarah Offin reports, some mountain regions have some of the lowest snow pack levels on record.

Watch the news story