Goal 7: Share Information

The Prairie Provinces Water Board (PPWB) and the Committee on Hydrology (COH) has undertaken a number of projects over the years to share information, knowledge and research amongst jurisdictions. Two projects have been undertaken in the last few years involving hydrological issues that are relevant for the PPWB.

Prairie Hydrological Model Study

The Board is one of several partners which supported work on a "Prairie Hydrological Model Study" being undertaken by the Centre for Hydrology, University of Saskatchewan, under the leadership of Dr. John Pomeroy. The objective of the study is to assess the sensitivity of stream flow, wetland water storage and soil moisture to changes in drainage and land use.

The PPWB Executive Director was a member of the Science Advisory Committee. PPWB provided partial funding for this project until March 2009.

A Progress Report was provided to the Science Advisory Committee in December 2008 that outlined the work carried out during 2008. The work in 2008 focused on completing a wetland module and incorporating it into the Cold Regions Hydrological Modelling Platform Prairie Hydrological Model. The wetland module was evaluated for the Smith Creek Research Basin in east central Saskatchewan.

During 2008, the Provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan provided financial support to obtain LiDAR imagery for the basin. Study partners are in the process of seeking funding to extend the study for another year thereby allowing the LiDAR imagery to be incorporated into the model along with spring run-off data for 2008.

The final project report was submitted in November 2009, ending the participation of the PPWB in this project. Efforts are underway by Dr. Pomeroy to continue this project.

Resilience of the Master Agreement on Apportionment to Climate Change

In March 2008, the PPWB initiated a project to assess how resilient the Master Agreement on Apportionment is expected to respond to predicted impacts of and adaptations to climate change. "What if" scenarios of potential circumstances will be used to test the resilience of the agreement, including potential increased variability in future flows, flooding, multi-year hydrological droughts and increased future water use.