2010 Alberta Branch Conference

Innovation... Adding Science to Water!!

Alberta Branch
Coast Edmonton Plaza Hotel
March 28 - 30, 2010
Edmonton, Alberta

CWRA partnered with the Alberta Water Research Institute and the North Saskatchewan Watershed Alliance to develop a program that showcased current research and science related to water and watersheds in Alberta. There was a particular focus on issues in and around the North Saskatchewan River Basin. However other work showcasing innovation in water related science and management in Alberta was included in the program. The program was structured around specific water management issues in Alberta. Speakers presented work that has been or is currently being done to address each issue, directly or indirectly, and this was followed by a discussion of each issue and related research for the purposes of identifying “What else do we need to know?”

Keynote Presentations

• Dave Hill - Alberta Water Research Institute, Connecting Science, Policy and Practice in Support of Water for Life
• Dave Trew - Integrated Watershed Management Planning for the North Saskatchewan River Basin in Alberta

The Big Picture

• David Sauchyn - Past, Recent and Future Hydroclimatic Variability, North Saskatchewan River Watershed
• Mike Sullivan - The Last Goldeye? The past and future of the North Saskatchewan River watershed

Plenary Monday March 29 PM, 2010
Water Quality Management

• Gordon Thompson - Proposed Site-Specific Water Quality Objectives for the Mainstem of the North Saskatchewan River
• Beryl Zaitlin - Water quality indicators in the Bow River within the City of Calgary
• Jocelyn Howery - Regional Assessment of Source Water Quality: A Case Study in the Headwaters of the Oldman River Basin, Alberta

Water Quality Management

• Suzanne Bayley - Wetland health: challenges in implementing Alberta’s Wetland Policy
• Brian Gregg - Mitigating Water Use Through Innovative Technologies in the Oil Sands

Session 1 Tuesday March 30 AM, 2010
Basin Planning, Management and Monitoring

• Kim Nielsen - Headwater Protection through Collaboration with Stakeholders?
• Jim Schieck - Measuring ecosystem health at regional and local scales
• Graham Watt - Development of a watershed management plan for the Vermilion River

Water Information

• Nesa Ilich - Emerging Developments in Stochastic Hydrology and Their Importance in Basin Management and Operation
• Stephanie Palachek - State of the Watershed Reporting: Methods and Application in the Oldman Watershed Studies.

Session 2 Tuesday March 30 AM, 2010
History and Future of Climate and Hydrology

• Ryan MacDonald - Potential Effects of Climate Change on the Spatial Characteristics of Mountain Hydrometeorology in the Upper North Saskatchewan River Watershed, Alberta
• Evan Booth - Historical and Future Environmental Change Indices? Upper North Saskatchewan Watershed Alberta
• Stefan Kienzle - Verification of Simulated Hydrological Processes Using the ACRU Agro-Hydrological Modelling System in the Upper North Saskatchewan River Watershed, Alberta.
• Suzan Lapp - Using a Fine Scale Hydrometeorology Model to Develop Paleoclimate, Historical and GCM based Future Scenarios of Moisture Indices
• Jeannine-Marie St. Jacques - Southern Alberta streamflow records: global warming trends, human impacts or natural variability?
• Jessica Vanstone - Nine hundred year streamflow reconstruction of the North Saskatchewan River

Plenary Tuesday March 30, 2010
Water - Collaborative Solutions

• Dan Sheer - Computer Aided Negotiation - Finding Collaborative Solutions that Satisfy All Competing Uses of the Conowingo Pool

Plenary Tuesday March 30, 2010
Water Trading

• John Thompson - Water Trading - the US experience
• Tara Hadler - Virtual Water: New Perspectives for Trade and its Sustainability
• Judy Stewart - Rain and Snow: Stormwater Free for All?

Source Water Quality

• Stephanie Neufeld - Source Water Protection Planning for Edmonton's Drinking water Supply
• Carolyn Campbell - Headwaters protection in the Bighorn region of the North Saskatchewan River Basin - Recreational Impacts