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Executive
Summary:
Since 1999, the NSERC-Industry Research Chair program has been
supported by NSERC, private partners, University of Victoria, and various
government departments and communities. Using an inter-disciplinary and a
watershed-level approach linking terrestrial-aquatic ecosystems, we apply
basic and applied sciences in ecology, environmental sciences, and
epidemiology to develop integrated management models and techniques for
lake, reservoir and stream ecosystems that supply drinking water. The models
and techniques developed during this IRC program will allow water sectors to
optimize water quality, reduce treatment cost, minimize disinfection
byproducts, allow beef and cattle industries and forest industries to
develop best livestock farming and timber harvesting practices for
sustainable economic returns without significant environmental impacts, and
permit environmental technology-based industries to develop new equipment,
applications and services related to drinking water monitoring and
assessment. The results will also assist the Provincial and Federal
governments in developing and strengthening the guidelines for protecting
and managing watersheds supplying drinking water. This IRC program is now a
world-class interdisciplinary initiative for ecosystem and watershed
management for sustainable clean and healthy water.
In
addition to making significant advances in understanding and modeling the
quality of source water ecosystems and watersheds, the IRC program
identified major knowledge gaps linking ecosystems and watersheds to water
quality at the source, during distribution, and community health. From the
last several years of research, we realized that the sustainable management
of drinking water requires the integration of ecological, environmental,
climatological, engineering, epidemiological and economic considerations,
something rarely considered in a single research program in Canada or
elsewhere. During the second 5-year mandate of the IRC program, the major
focus has been to develop integrated water and watershed science and
technology for sustainable clean and healthy water in selected large and
small communities including First Nations Communities.
The major research objectives
of the IRC program are
·
Develop ecosystem- and watershed-scale understanding of
factors and processes determining the quality of source water under variable
land-use, water-use, inter-basin water transfer, fisheries exploitation and
climatic variability;
·
Characterize, quantify and model quality of distribution water
as a function of source water quality;
·
Evaluate health implications of source water quality under
variable land-use and climatic conditions; and
·
Evaluate past water and watershed activities with innovative
paleo-indicators of water quality.
As research and training of highly qualified personnel
is the highest priority of the IRC program, over 70% of the budget is
targeted for salaries and research expenses of graduate students, PDFs,
undergraduate research assistants and technical assistants.
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