Development of a Canadian Hydrological Service Water Resources Assessment in Canada RA IV Expert Meeting for Water Resources Assessment March 5-7, 2013
Outline Basic Governance for Water in Canada Federal and Provincial Roles International and inter-provincial waters Hydrometric Monitoring in Canada Hydro-meteorological and hydraulic modelling systems Great Lakes Example of Water Resources Assessment Software Tools for National Assessment Space-based Conclusions Page 2 Discussion Document (For Internal Use Only)
Environment Act (1)The powers, duties and functions of the Minister extend to and include all matters over which Parliament has jurisdiction, not by law assigned to any other department, board or agency of the Government of Canada, relating to (a) the preservation and enhancement of the quality of the natural environment, including water, air and soil quality; (b) renewable resources, including migratory birds and other non-domestic flora and fauna; (c) water;* (d) meteorology; (e) notwithstanding paragraph 4(2)(g) of the Department of Health Act, the enforcement of any rules or regulations made by the International Joint Commission*, promulgated pursuant to the treaty between the United States of America and His Majesty, King Edward VII, relating to boundary waters and questions arising between the United States and Canada, in so far as they relate to the preservation and enhancement of the quality of the natural environment; and (f) the coordination of the policies and programs of the Government of Canada respecting the preservation and enhancement of the quality of the natural environment*. (g) and (h) [Repealed, 1995, c. 11, s. 18] (2) The powers, duties and functions of the Minister also extend to and include such other matters, relating to the environment and over which Parliament has jurisdiction, as are by law assigned to the Minister. Page 3 Discussion Document (For Internal Use Only)
Water is a shared jurisdiction Provincial Provinces have the lead on water management and protection within their boundaries Provincial legislative powers include: flow regulation authorization of water use development water supply pollution control thermal and hydroelectric power development Federal Municipal Provision of water and wastewater services, including drinking water Land use planning policies EXCLUSIVE ROLES: fisheries, navigation, relations with foreign governments, public property (including government buildings, National Parks, migratory bird sanctuaries, Canadian Forces bases, National Historic Sites, national wildlife sanctuaries, etc.) and lands reserved for Indians Shared Drinking water, pollution prevention, water quantity/supply monitoring, aquatic ecosystems, domestic interjurisdictional waters, infrastucture, environmental assessment, science/research, Heritage Rivers, etc. Page 4 Discussion Document (For Internal Use Only)
So where does Meteorological Service of Canada get involved? Federal Water Canada US most water subject to treaty and orders Columbia, Milk, St. Mary s Souris, Red River,Lake of the Woods, Great-lakes/St. Laurent, St Croix, Yukon. Transboundary inter-provincial basins Saskatchewan- Nelson, Mackenzie. Navigable Rivers (Coast-Guard) Water Survey for 100 years Information now-casting and hindcasting service cost shared with the provinces. 100% cost recovery for non-federal interest. Transboundary (IJC and Domestic Boards) Water Units All MSC regions have some responsibility Applications and Modeling supports WSC and Transboundary Units... as well as provinces and territories. Page 5 Discussion Document (For Internal Use Only)
What Are the Results of Hydrometric Monitoring? Long term data and records on water throughout Canada Water level data for lakes and streams throughout Canada Water flow rate calculations for streams and rivers Information on rivers and fresh water ice conditions Other environmental data Water Budget Estimates (P-E) Page 6 Discussion Document (For Internal Use Only)
Hydrometric Monitoring: What do we do? Collect water level (stage) and stream velocity data year round from over 2500 stations across Canada Analyze and model data to produce usable products (such as stage discharge relationships) required for a range of decision and policy makers in Canada and abroad Quality control data for public usage with use of National standards Science and development of monitoring methods, techniques and implementation of state-of-the-art technologies Disseminate information and provide specialized water knowledge for a range of partners, including data archive and information services National data archive Real-time information services Governance In collaboration with provinces/territories through a National Administrators Table Federal Requirements for monitoring in Canada Water Act and for internationa and inter-provincial transboundary basins Page 7 Discussion Document (For Internal Use Only)
Estimates are between 2.5 and 5 million rivers and lakes in Canada Page 8 Discussion Document (For Internal Use Only)
Canada s National Hydrometric Network Approximately 240 staff: Technicians Technologists Engineers Hydrologists Management Support Page 9 Discussion Document (For Internal Use Only)
100 years of service 100 years ago. Minister of the Interior at the time was Frank Oliver MP from Edmonton Sir Wilfred Laurier was PM. Deputy Minister was W.W.Cory First published Data : Report of Progress of Streamflow for Calendar Year, 1909 by P.M. Sauder, Chief Hydrographer. The first appropriation made by Parliament for hydrographic work was in 1908.. as this vote was not available until the season was too far advances, only a part of it was used in purchasing equipment in 1909 In Organizing the Hydrographic Surveys, it was realized with the funds available, it would be impossible to make complete investigations of the whole water supply Spent two years in Montana with USGS Page 10 Discussion Document (For Internal Use Only)
Boundary Waters Treaty - Principles Equal and similar rights to use of boundary waters Order of precedence of use sanitary/domestic, navigation, power generation and irrigation Structures/diversions not to affect levels and flows on the other side Must not pollute water on either side to the injury of health or property on the other side rules upon applications for approval of projects affecting boundary or transboundary waters (orders of approval) and may regulate the operation of these projects (review of orders) investigates issues referred by governments and makes non-binding recommendations for resolution (references) Page 11 Discussion Document (For Internal 11 Use Only)
IJC Boards 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 1 5 3 2 4 15 distinct basins with some 300 lakes and rivers water covers 43% of the 8,900 km border 1. International St. Croix River Watershed Board 2.International Missisquoi Bay Study Board 3.International St. Lawrence River Board of Control 4.International Niagara Board of Control 5.Multiple Great Lakes Boards and Advisory Groups 6.International Rainy River Pollution and Control Boards 7.International Red River Board 8.International Souris River Board 9.Accredited Officers of the St. Mary-Milk River 10.International Osoyoos Lake Board of Control 11.International Columbia River Board of Control 12.International Kootenay Lake Board of Control Page 12 Discussion Document (For Internal Use Only)
Boards Address a Range of Issues Water apportionment Invasive species Flow regulation Air quality Water quality Floods/droughts Climate change 13 Page 13 Discussion Document (For Internal Use Only)
Other Boards Inter-provincial Boards MRBB Mackenzie River Basin Board Alberta-Saskatchewan,BC, NWT and Yukon PPWB Prairie Provinces Water Board (Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba) Lake of the Wood Control Board (Manitoba, Ontario) Ottawa River Regulation Board Page 14 Discussion Document (For Internal Use Only)
Water Resources Modelling Description: An enhanced hydrological service that builds on our existing infrastructure and our mandated responsibilities (IJC and interprovincial boards) but bringing this forward into a new paradigm, that: optimizes the delivery of services building on key existing EC infrastructure; and provides a new level of information products to enhance EC mandated requirement for hydrological services; and, to provide tools and information services. Long Term and Short Term Objectives are focused in 3 Main Thematic Areas: Development of Hydro-meteorological and Hydraulic models. Development of water cycle applications. Development of integrated and regional studies or projects. Page 15 Discussion Document (For Internal Use Only)
MESH: A MEC surface/hydrology configuration designed for regional hydrological modeling The tile connector (1D, scalable) redistributes mass and energy between tiles in a grid cell e.g. snow drift The grid connector (2D) is responsible for routing runoff can still be parallelized by grouping grid cells by subwatershed Page 16 Discussion Document (For Internal Use Only)
Operationalized 2D hydraulic model (Lac St. Pierre, QC) Topography Substratum Vegetation Water levels Currents Wind waves Page 17 Discussion Document (For Internal Use Only) Water quality Temperature Imagery
Prediction Framework for Water Services Hydraulic 1-D, 2 D and 3-D model Water Survey Level and Flow Data Upper air observations Surface observations 4DVar data assimilation CaPA: Canadian precipitation analysis CaLDAS: Canadian land data assimilation On-line mode GEM atmospheric model Off-line mode Surface scheme (CLASS or ISBA) and routing model MESH Modélisation environnementale communautaire (MEC) de la surface et de l hydrologie Lake models 1D to 3 D Hydroecological applications Water Office Page 18 Discussion Document (For Internal Use Only) Temperature above 2 meters for Canada, November 22 2005, 00:00 (.gif image)
The Laurentian Great Lakes Application of the MESH community model Understand and attribute recent low water levels in the Upper Great Lakes Develop L. Superior regulation plan to maximize net benefits Page 19 Discussion Document (For Internal Use Only)
Page 20 Discussion Document (For Internal Use Only)
5-year hindcast with MESH in offline mode forced by GEM short-term forecasts + precip. analysis Superior Michigan-Huron Erie Ontario Black: residual NBS Red: component NBS
Getting NBS right required improvements to GEM evaporation parameterization over water Impact of precipitation forecast (sum of 31 daily forecasts, Dec 09) ORIG: Parameterization used by Reg. GEM 15 EXP1: PR T changed from 0.85 to 1 EXP2: z 0H z 0M
Ensemble forecast of inflows into Lake Ontario, August 2003 130 Meteorological Service of Canada Ensemble Forecast Aug. 1/05 125 Lake Ontario Net Inflow (cms) 120 115 110 From August 1 Lake Ontario 105 5/8/03 12/8/03 Page 23 Discussion Document (For Internal Use Only)
Green Kenue Software Tools Developed by the National Research Council, largely funded by EC Yearly development aims to support EC projects, while providing tools for regional hydrologist and the Canadian water resource community Provides data preparation, analysis, and visualization for hydrologic modellers DEM and land cover imagery processing, tools for manipulation of time-varying and gridded data Integration of environmental data: HYDAT, CDCD, NARR, GRIB Pre & post-processing for the WATFLOOD and HBV-EC models FREE Page 24 Discussion Document (For Internal Use Only)
Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators (CESI) www.ec.gc.ca/indicateurs-indicators CESI measure the progress of the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy, report to Canadians on the state of the environment, and describe Canada s progress on key environmental sustainability issues. WSC is responsible for the yearly calculation of the Water Quantity Indicator: 30-yr hydrologic normals are calculated at over 1000 long-term hydrometric stations across Canada. WSC reports yearly on the state of water levels or flows at each stations with respect to calculated normals. Stations are categorized as Low, Normal or High. Page 25 Discussion Document (For Internal Use Only)
Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators (CESI) Indicator calculation tool recently developed within Green Kenue. Allows users to: Calculate water level and flow indicators using HYDAT.mdb Visualize data used to create indicator and further understand yearly conditions (i.e. higher than normal spring flows) Customize calculation criteria and observe impact on normals and indicator result Page 26 Discussion Document (For Internal Use Only)
Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators (CESI) Further development of the Green Kenue Indicator Tool is planned to include Indicators of Hydrological Alteration (IHA) Suite of well-established indicators developed by the Nature Conservancy to analyze hydrometric data in an ecologically-meaningful manner. EC (Water & Climate Impacts Research Centre and Canadian Rivers Institute) is now exploring modification to the IHA for its application in the Canadian context Characterization of the influence of ice cover Calculation of indicators for seasonally-operated stations WSC is aiming to produce indicators that complement those currently published by CESI and further describe the state of water quantity in Canada. Page 27 Discussion Document (For Internal Use Only)
Database of Canadian basin characteristics Modelled after the USGS Geospatial Attributes of Gages for Evaluating Streamflow (GAGES), designed to: 1. to provide users with a comprehensive set of geospatial characteristics for gauged watersheds, particularly for gauges with long flow record, 2. to provide a determination of which of those watersheds represent hydrologic conditions which are least disturbed by human influences ("reference gages") Database will consist of basin characteristics derived from national data sets on climate, geology, soils, topography, ecoregions, land use, road density, census information etc. Calculated using WSC official basin delineations Page 28 Discussion Document (For Internal Use Only)
Database of Canadian basin characteristics Include characterization of historical flow and level records and pertinent stations information Database will: provide Canadians with information describing the basins monitored by the WSC hydrometric network, provide nationally consistent information for stochastic modellers and network planning and assessment studies, and serve as a basis for the re-evaluation Canada s Reference Hydrometric Basin Network (RHBN), identifying stations suitable for climate change studies. Page 29 Discussion Document (For Internal Use Only)
Potential SWOT Sites for Canada Page 30 Discussion Document (For Internal Use Only)
Towards Hydrological Service WSC and regional hydrology program form the basis of an integrated National Hydrological Service. Hydrometric information and services National Standards Improved technology and dissemination Forecast, nowcast and hindcast services for all elements of the water cycle. Take advantage of assimilation and RS opportunities. Use existing NWP infrastructure. Page 31 Discussion Document (For Internal Use Only)