The Western Watersheds Climate
Research Collaborative

Introduction

In February of 2007, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change announced that it has determined beyond any reasonable doubt that Global atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have increased markedly as a result of human activities since 1750 and now far exceed pre-industrial values. The global increases in carbon dioxide concentration are due primarily to fossil fuel use and land-use change, while increases in concentrations of methane and nitrous oxide are primarily due to agriculture. Some 600 authors from 40 countries declared they were 90% confident that we are the cause of a significant part of the warming we are experiencing globally, especially in the last decade.

As we cannot reduce the growing impact of the emissions we have already released into the atmosphere, global average increases in temperature associated with a doubling of CO2 concentrations are likely to be in the range of 2°C to 4.5°C. This, however, represents a global average. Some places will warm more and others less.

Fire & Water:
Implications for the Canadian West

Unfortunately, we live in a part of the world that will be warming at a rate and to an extent that far exceeds the global average. Alberta and Saskatchewan have already recorded a warming trend of 1°C to 4°C, mostly after 1970. Regional climate models predict that the average temperature will increase by another 4.8°C to 8° C by 2100. This range is outside our society’s current willingness or capacity to adapt.
 
While many Canadians think that it wouldn’t hurt at all if the climate in Canada was a little warmer, especially in winter, what is being missed is the extent to which we – as a society – have relied on relative climate stability as a foundation for our economic and social development.

Projected changes in our climate will affect us in many ways. The timing and extent of rain and snowfall will change, affecting how much water is available to agriculture, industry and to our communities. There will also be a great deal more fire in our northern and mountain forests, which will also affect the hydrology of our major river basins.

It will not just be agriculture and industry however that will be affected by a changing climate. There will be impacts also on water storage & hydro-power generation, public infrastructure, forestry, tourism, recreation, real estate, community development, public health and local identity and sense of place.

These changes are not going to happen to someone else, somewhere else. They are happening to us, now. The average flow of the Saskatchewan River has been much reduced in the past century. During the last 100 years, the average flow of the North Saskatchewan at Edmonton has been reduced by 15%. Over the same period the flow of the river at Saskatoon has been reduced by 30% and at North Battleford by 40%. The flow of the South Saskatchewan River at North Battleford has been reduced by 85% over the same one hundred year period.

How should we as a province respond?

The biggest single threat to the long-term economic sustainability of Western Canada is that we no not know what the exact climate change impacts will be on the region in terms of landscape or other kinds of change.

Nor do we know what the spin-off impacts will be on economic drivers such as tourism or industry. The projections are that the impacts could be substantial change. We are not ready for these changes.

Our Name & Our Domain

The geographical area of prime interest of the Western Watersheds Climate Research Collaborative is the Rocky Mountains of Canada and the basins of rivers that have their origins in these mountains. These rivers include the North and South Saskatchewan, the Athabasca, Peace, Fraser and Columbia and the upland tributaries that are part of their basins.

How can the Western Watersheds Climate
Research Collaborative Help?

The habit of entitlement will be the hardest to break. We need to teach ourselves a new language and then work together to create a new ethic relating to how we manage our resources and conduct ourselves in a dramatically changing world. The Western Watersheds Climate Research Collaborative can help in three essential ways.

1. We can undertake useful research and translate research results from all over the world into language the average Albertan can understand and decision-makers can act upon

2. By drawing on world examples we can identify appropriate adaptation practices & encourage the development of new adaptive technologies

3. We can help identify incentives and put into relief new legal and legislative frameworks that will make adaptation economically feasible and even desirable

What products will the not-for-profit WWCRC offer?

Research & Interpretation

1. Directed research to fill in knowledge gaps in our understanding of climate change and its positive and negative impacts on our landscapes, ecosystems, economy and social fabric

1. The translation of scientific research conducted around the world into understandable language

1. Building bridges between scientific research outputs and public education by offering public presentations by leading scientists and others aimed to clarify and upgrade public understanding about climate-related threats and opportunities

1. Comprehensive climate vulnerability assessments at local, provincial and regional scales which will become the foundation for:

1. The development of comprehensive climate adaptation strategies for communities, regions, economic sectors and businesses

Appropriate Practices & Adaptive Technology

1. Continuous global analysis & assessment of appropriate practices, technological improvements and climate adaptation innovations for on-going incorporation into community, regional and organizational climate adaptation strategies

1. Research into new technologies that can help us adapt and that can be commercialized in ways that will allow Canada to profitably help others address their climate adaptation needs

1. Comparison and ranking of best practices and technologies as to their total cost of ownership from a climate adaptation perspective

1. The creation of a repository of climate science knowledge and perspectives that can be continuously shared with partners & clients

Public Policy, Governance & Social Marketing

1. Identification of laws, policies and regulations that currently govern matters related to climate change adaptation options and opportunities with the goal of determining how incentives can be made to lead to greater adaptation success

1. working with diverse others in the determination of what information, social marketing tools, actions and communications processes are needed to ensure that appropriate adaptation  is possible in both public and private sectors and in society as a whole

1. linking of adaptation responses to improvements in water management and land-use policy in ways that will encourage true sustainability at both community and regional levels

What work has this collaborative already undertaken?

1. In 2006: Dr. David Sauchyn and his colleagues at the Prairie Adaptation Research Collaborative – our partners on the prairies – completed the first-ever comprehensive Climate Vulnerability Assessment for the Province of Alberta

1. In 2006: the Prairie Adaptation Research Collaborative undertook the first-ever comprehensive Climate Research Workshop in the Oldman & South Saskatchewan Basin

1. In 2006: the UN Water for Life cooperated with the Columbia Basin Trust and our partners at the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium to publish the first-ever comprehensive Climate Vulnerability Assessment for the Columbia River Basin in Canada

1. In 2006: WWCRC organized its first-ever Climate Change Workshop to representatives from 50 alpine nations for the UIAA-Alpine Club of Canada World Assembly in Banff, Alberta

What are we working on now?

1. 2007: We are, in partnership with the Bow River Basin Council and Alberta Environment, presently completing the first-ever comprehensive climate vulnerability assessment for the Rocky Mountains and Eastern Slopes in Alberta.

1. 2007: We are cultivating a broad partnership base & building our climate science, technology and public policy advisory networks

1. 2007: We are seeking funding support to fully launch our initiative to be centred in Canmore.

What Is Our Funding Model?

This institute has been founded on the successful research partnership model established by

1. the Prairie Adaptation Research Collaborative at the University of Regina with which the WWCRC will be associated from its inception. The new institute’s organization design is modeled on the very successful

1. Telecommunications Research Laboratory (TR Labs) example which was pioneered in part by members of the WWCRC board. This means that:  

1. The institute will be funded in part by a consortium of Government, Business, and Educational investors.  Potential contributions by investors include funds, land, equipment, and services in kind.  Each investment sector will be represented appropriately on the board.  The remainder of the funding for WWCRC will come from fee for service consulting engagements with member organizations.

Our Distinguished Board

We have great strength in the experience of our board and the reputation of our scientists and advisory networks. We can make a difference. The Chair of the Board of Directors is Dr. Dennis Fitzpatrick, who is Vice-President of Research for the University of Lethbridge.  The Vice-Chair is Dr. Robert James, who recently retired as Vice-President of Research for the University of Alberta.

Board members include Dr. Terry White, who is the former President of the University of Calgary;  Dr. Henry Baltes of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich; Dr. Norman Henderson, who is Executive Director of the Prairie Adaptation Research Collaborative; Mr. Glen Craig, the former Mayor of Canmore; Mr. John Long, technology venture capitalist, Mr. Wade Karmann, senior project planning consultant.

The President of the Collaborative and Chair of the Science Advisory Network is Dr. David Sauchyn. The acting Executive-Director is Bob Sandford, who is the Chair of the United Nations Water for Life Decade, Canadian Partnership Initiative.

We have also recently attracted Dr. Henry Vaux, Chair of the Rosenberg International Forum on Water Policy and former Vice-President of the University of California system; and Dr. David Eaton of the Lyndon Johnson School of Public Policy at the University of Texas in Austin to sit on our developing Public Policy Advisory Network.

Our Distinguished Science Advisory Network

The initiative has been founded upon the experience and reputation of our Collaborative’s Science Advisory Committee, which is composed of some of the country’s most respected climate scientists.

These include Dr. David Sauchyn of the University of Regina, Dr. David Schindler of the University of Alberta, Dr. Shawn Marshall of the University of Calgary, Dr. Jim Byrne of the University of Lethbridge, Dr. David Rodenhuis of the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium and Dr. Henry Baltes of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

For further information please contact Dr. David Sauchyn at the Prairie Adaptation Research Collaborative at sauchyn@uregina.ca or Bob Sandford, Chair, United Nations Water for Life Decade, Canadian Partnership Initiative at sandford@telusplanet.net.