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Research Themes

In Canada the requirement for environmental impact assessment related to new developments was changed with the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act to be a requirement for a cumulative effects assessment. This area of applied science is receiving considerable research attention, and will be the research focus of WATER graduate students. This area has considerable overlap between the interests of government, industry, and ENGOs, and is the subject of several large research projects that the CRI is conducting. Those research projects will form the platforms for WATER students, and provide an area of focus.

The focus of the WATER stipends will be for students working on three main watersheds:

Possible topics and focus of research projects (science and non-science students): 

  • Watershed governance
    • governance comparisons between watersheds
    • identification of barriers in watershed governance that limit the uptake of watershed science
  • Policy and implications of changing frameworks for CEA
    • what are the requirements to change the practice of land use planning so that watershed management can connect
    • what are the risk management consequences of an effects-based framework for cumulative effects management
    • identification of the legal barriers preventing watershed management based on monitoring results
  • Development of new management frameworks
    • how do we optimize management decisions to optimally protect valued ecosystem components
    • how can we transfer the lessons learned in sustainable forest management to watershed cumulative effects assessment
    • identification of sources of nutrients and contaminants (i.e., mass loading) relative to land use and modelling of the most effective places for remedial action to protect the valued ecosystem components
    • building appropriate land use planning and management models to protect water resources
  • Development of predictive capabilities
    • prediction of the impact of various remediation scenarios on improving water quality and effecting adverse effects (fish populations/communities)
    • development of a model for scenario forecasting for watershed cumulative effects assessment
    • how the quantitative relationships between biochemical and molecular responses and organismal reproductive output can be linked to population stability
  • Decision-making
    • management aspects and decision-making for nutrient management (i.e., for the Grand River)
    • can land-based and aquatic ecologist find common metrics and scales (spatial, temporal) to work on in order to assess watershed ecosystem health
    • refining mercury bioaccumulation models for improving regulatory decisions

Cumulative impact assessment will continue to be a prominent area for research in NB, as new developments and expansions have been proposed for an energy hub, including an oil refinery, liquid natural gas developments, shale gas extraction, nuclear development, and new large potash, tungsten, and molybdenum mining operations. These developments create an ideal research and training ground to develop, introduce, and apply new environmental assessment approaches, techniques, and tools.

The Grand River (ON) is the site of massive infrastructure projects planned for municipal effluent treatment (>$300M), rapid urban growth and the continued intensive animal and crop production in the watershed. The Grand River is a "working river" with many conflicting uses where cumulative effects are not always considered in each decision.

The Northumberland Strait is an area of intensive research presently because fishers, residents and resource managers have expressed concern over declining fisheries and changing environmental conditions. Probably the main increasing stressor is the development of shoreline recreational land. One might even say that 'erosion and eutrophication due to increased shoreline development in combination with rising sea levels poses additional new stressors on both the nearshore and marine environments in the Northumberland'. Both Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Environment Canada have designated Northumberland Strait as a centre for their coastal research activities and the province of New Brunswick has expressed interest in focusing research efforts in this area on climate change issues such as sea level rise, coastal erosion and altered biotic distributions.

WATER students will focus on the translation aspects of the science into regulatory, policy and management frameworks with the objective to train students with skills in applying science in government, industry or NGOs. WATER stipends will be used to fund projects related to changing the management and regulatory frameworks, and collaboratively striving to change the community of practice in consulting and industry to uptake the technology we are developing.

The current approach in all three watersheds (Saint John River, Grand River, and the Northumberland Strait) has involved following observed effects, and developing retrospective assessments of the accumulated environmental states in the basins. While this is a traditional academic ecological approach, decision making by both government and industry require prospective assessment for development proposals, land use planning decisions, and natural resource management.

In addition to the ongoing research programs in specific watersheds, PhDs external to CREATE stipends will be committed to work related to designing monitoring framework for the Saint John River (Munkittrick), development of methods for predicting impact zone size on Grand River (Servos), and understanding the source of nutrient issues for the Northumberland Strait (Courtenay, van den Heuvel).

The Canada Research Chairs (CRCs) associated with the program will commit funding from their research programs for 1.5 PhD students during the program in their areas of study design (Munkittrick, UNB), development of indicators (Servos, U Waterloo), understanding how food web structure changes with cumulative effects (Kidd, UNB), nutrient management issues in the Northumberland Strait (van den Heuvel, UPEI).