Everyone Together
Global Water Futures Mistawasis Nêhiyawak Water Gathering Statement
For the first time in Canada, Indigenous water experts and Knowledge Keepers have created a protocol that puts co-generation of research at the forefront, in an attempt to create a better water future for everyone.
Solutions to Water Threats in an Era of Global Change
Global Water Futures is a pan-Canadian research program that is funded in part by a $77.8-million grant from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund. The overarching goal of the program is to deliver risk management solutions - informed by leading-edge water science and supported by innovative decision-making tools - to manage water futures in Canada and other cold regions where global warming is changing landscapes, ecosystems, and the water environment. Global Water Futures (GWF) aims to position Canada as a global leader in water science for cold regions and will address the strategic needs of the Canadian economy in adapting to change and managing risks of uncertain water futures and extreme events. End-user needs will be our beacon and will drive strategy and shape our science.
Core Partners
Featured Science Outcomes
Time to act:
Road salts are stressing our urban lakes
By: Jovana Radosavljevic, Stephanie Slowinski, Fereidoun Rezanezhad, and Philippe Van Cappellen
New research links salinization to eutrophication in urban lakes.
Raw or cooked? Mercury concentrations and bioaccessibility in northern freshwater fish
By: Sara Packull-McCormick, Alicia Cowan, Heidi Swanson, and Brian Laird
Researchers at the University of Waterloo have been investigating the bioaccessibility of mercury in freshwater fish samples.
Using DNA Science to Monitor Invasive and Endangered Species
By: Yuwei Xie, Chris DeBeer, and John Giesy
Environmental DNA analysis and the use of emerging biological technologies provide a new approach to monitoring for invasive and endangered species, detecting pathogens, characterizing biodiversity, and assessing aquatic ecosystems.
Women+Water Making Waves
By: Stacey Dumanski, Corinne Schuster-Wallace, Andrea Rowe, Alain Pietroniro, Amber Brown
The Women+Water Lecture Series empowers women to share their experiences working in water and has grown substantially since 2018, engaging with an international audience and initiating dialogue that leads to change.
The Conversation Canada
Pollution timebombs: Contaminated wetlands are ticking towards ignition
Colin McCarter - Nipissing University
Mike Waddington - McMaster University
Wetlands across the globe have long served as natural repositories for humanity’s toxic legacy, absorbing and retaining hundreds to thousands of years’ worth of pollution.
These swampy vaults have quietly been trapping air and water pollution for thousands of years, protecting the world from some of the worst effects of lead, mercury, copper, nickel and other poisonous materials.
Now, however, a combination of human disruptions and ever increasing wildfires threaten to open these vaults, unleashing their long dormant toxic contents upon the world.
Up in smoke: Human activities are fuelling wildfires that burn essential carbon-sequestering peatlands
Sophie Wilkinson - Simon Fraser University
Mike Waddington - McMaster University
For centuries, society has scorned bogs, fens and swamps — collectively known as peatlands — treating them as wastelands available to be drained and developed without realizing they’re important buffers against climate-changing carbon emissions.
It’s only recently that humans have realized how vital these wetlands are to regulating our climate...
Projects
GWF is led by the Global Institute for Water Security at the University of Saskatchewan in partnership with University of Waterloo, McMaster University and Wilfrid Laurier University.
