Climate Change Effect on Water Quantity in Southern Ontario Watersheds

Climate Change Effect on Water Quantity in Southern Ontario Watersheds PDF Author: Qi Sha
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780494478271
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 137

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Climate Change Effect on Water Quantity in Southern Ontario Watersheds

Climate Change Effect on Water Quantity in Southern Ontario Watersheds PDF Author: Qi Sha
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780494478271
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 137

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Book Description


Water Quality Evaluation Under Climate Change Impacts for Canagagigue Creek Watershed in Southern Ontario

Water Quality Evaluation Under Climate Change Impacts for Canagagigue Creek Watershed in Southern Ontario PDF Author: University of Guelph. School of Engineering
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Soil Components and Human Health

Soil Components and Human Health PDF Author: Rolf Nieder
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9402412220
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 907

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Book Description
This volume highlights important links existing between soils and human health which up to now are not fully realized by the public. Soil materials may have deleterious, beneficial or no impacts on human health; therefore, understanding the complex relationships between diverse soil materials and human health will encourage creative cooperation between soil and environmental sciences and medicine. The topics covered in this book will be of immense value to a wide range of readers, including soil scientists, medical scientists and practitioners, nursing scientists and staff, toxicologists, ecologists, agronomists, geologists, geochemists, public health professionals, planners and several others.

The Impact of Climate Change on Water in the Grand River Basin, Ontario

The Impact of Climate Change on Water in the Grand River Basin, Ontario PDF Author: Marie Sanderson
Publisher: Department of Geography University of Waterloo
ISBN: 9780921083481
Category : Global warming
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Assessment of Impacts of Upstream Developments and Climate Change on Carp River Watershed

Assessment of Impacts of Upstream Developments and Climate Change on Carp River Watershed PDF Author: Baba-Serges Zango
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
A SWAT hydrological model is developed to evaluate the individual and combined impacts of urbanization and climate change on water quantity (discharge) and quality (N and P) of the watershed of Carp River in Ontario, Canada. Seven numerical experiments (scenarios) were developed to represent the different configurations of the watershed in terms of land use (either current or projected) and climate regime (current or future, observed or simulated). The reference period is 1990-2018, and the future period is 2021-2050. The 2017 land use was used to represent the reference period. The future land use is the projected 2050 land use obtained from the City of Ottawa. The future climate was obtained by downscaling the outputs of nine (9) Regional Climate Models (RCMs) under two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs): RCP4.5 and RCP 8.5. The developed scenarios are the following: • S0o (baseline scenario) corresponding to the current land use map and the observed climate regime on the reference period • S0m is similar to S0o except that RCM outputs are used instead of the observed climate on the reference period • S1 corresponds to the future land use and historical climate regime on the reference period. • S0M45/S0M85 corresponds to the current land use and the future climate regime under RCP4.5 (S0M45) and RCP8.5 (S0M85) • S1M45/S1M85 corresponds to the future land use map and future climate regime under the two RCPs. The changes or impacts on quantity and quality in each scenario were estimated by comparing the results with the baseline scenarios S0o/m (reference) at two levels: globally (at the main outlet) and locally (at the outlet of an upstream sub-watershed). For a consistency purpose, S0o is used when assessing land-use change scenario while S0m was the reference in climate change and combined effects scenario. This allowed the comparison to be consistent with the same climate data frame. The results showed that climate change is likely to be the most dominant factor affecting discharge and nitrogen, while urbanization will control the quantity of phosphorus. Unsurprisingly, the combined effect had a more significant impact on water quantity and quality. However, the impact is not additive, and the relationship is not linear. Compared with S0, the annual average discharge increased by 1.57%, 5.49%, 7.52%, 6.75%, and 9.34% in S1, S0M45, S0M85, S1M45, and S1M85, respectively. In comparison, the change for annual N load was estimated at -1.88%, 29.62%, 2.03%, 24.84%, and -1.20% respectively. Change in annual average P was respectively 26.49%, 1.07%, -4.49%, 23.81% and 19.15%. Local impact assessment indicates the impact in upstream sub-watersheds may differ from the main outlet's impact in terms of magnitude and direction of change. Therefore, only considering global change may lead to a wrong interpretation of the impacts over the watershed. It is, therefore, necessary to evaluate the impacts at the local level as well.

Climate Change Impacts on Snowmelt-Driven Streamflow in the Grand River Watershed

Climate Change Impacts on Snowmelt-Driven Streamflow in the Grand River Watershed PDF Author: Amy Dietrich
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Climate change is one of the most significant global environmental drivers threatening the quality and quantity of future water resources. Global temperature increases will have significant effects on the hydrologic regime of northern regions due to changes in snowfall and snowmelt. Considerable research has been conducted in western Canada to rigorously quantify snowmelt-driven streamflow processes, however, less focus has been directed towards understanding these processes in eastern Canada and Ontario. In the southern Ontario Grand River Watershed (GRW), snowmelt contributions to streamflow (freshet) make up a significant portion of the annual water yield, and the period of snowmelt is also of key concern for flood mitigation. This thesis aims to quantify historical and projected changes to timing and streamflow during freshet in the Nith River, an unregulated tributary of the Grand River. Climate data (temperature, rainfall, snowfall, and snow proportion) from observations and future scenarios were analyzed to quantify the contributions of climate conditions surrounding the timing and volume of the freshet. The annual timing of snowmelt-driven streamflow was quantified using centre time (CT), and streamflow volumes were quantified by various percentiles of streamflow (Qn) during four periods of the water year (October-December, January-February, March-April, and May-September). Historical trends in streamflow and climate data were examined using hydrometric data (1914-2016) of a stream gauge from the Water Survey of Canada, and climate data (1950-2016) from Environment and Climate Change Canada at two stations. Projected climate data were from an ensemble of models used in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Fourth Assessment Report (AR4). A total of nine distinct models ran two scenarios from AR4 for the 2050s; moderate (B1) and high (A1B). These time-slice projections were then used to force the hydrologic model GAWSER to simulate future streamflow data. The results show that CT in the Nith River has advanced by 17 days, on average, from 1914 to 2016 (P=0.036), and the advance is projected to continue as a function of future emissions scenario (approximately 12 days for scenario B1, and 17 days for A1B). Historical CT was weakly negatively correlated with temperature (-0.51, P

Impacts of Climate Change and Controlled Tile Drainage on Water Quality and Quantity in Southern Otario, Canada

Impacts of Climate Change and Controlled Tile Drainage on Water Quality and Quantity in Southern Otario, Canada PDF Author: Karlen Hanke
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Agricultural chemicals
Languages : en
Pages : 100

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Book Description
Within the Great Lakes region, agricultural non-point source nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) contamination contribute to algal blooms and decreased water quality, particularly from tile-drained landscapes. These water quality challenges are accompanied by anthropogenically induced increases in greenhouse gases within the atmosphere, which are leading to changes in climate, which may in turn exacerbate water quality issues by changing hydrological and biogeochemical cycling. This may be particularly important during the non-growing season (NGS), during which most of the annual nutrient export and flow occurs in the Great Lakes region. However, hydrologic and biogeochemical processes during the NGS are less well understood compared to the growing season. The implementation of beneficial management practices (BMP) such as controlled tile drainage (CD) have the potential to mitigate both current and future water quality issues. However, there is little information on the potential water quality tradeoffs associated with this particular practice under both contemporary and future climates. Such information is necessary before CD may be widely recommended and adopted as a BMP. In this thesis, the Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was used to demonstrate the potential for CD to reduce nutrient losses in midwestern Ontario, under both current and future climates, and to understand the processes affecting nutrient export responses through the analyses of the water balance, flow regimes, and weather patterns, and to examine seasonal differences in these variables. In this study, two Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) models were applied at varying scales. One was generated for the Medway Creek watershed, near London, ON, to understand the impact of climate change on water quality and quantity by forcing the model with a bias corrected general circulation model (GCM) ensemble. The second SWAT model was run at the field scale, for a field site near Londesborough, ON to understand the potential water quality tradeoffs associated with CD for a field with low-sloped clay loam soil. Results indicate that future changes in climate will cause shifts in seasonal water budgets, resulting in much greater nutrient export during the NGS and an overall increase in annual nutrient losses by the 2080-2100 period. These changes will be driven by precipitation quantity, but also changing precipitation characteristics (timing, form, magnitude, and frequency) and temperature, which will influence runoff pathways. The use of CD will not mitigate water quality issues and will instead exacerbate TP losses in runoff by increasing soil moisture and consequently increasing surface runoff. Although reductions of tile flow were greater than the simulated increases in surface runoff, the approximately 10X greater TP concentrations in surface runoff resulted in an overall increase in simulated edge-of-field TP losses. This will be particularly problematic where CD is used both during the NGS and growing season. This thesis has provided an improved understanding of the impacts of climate change on water quality in the MCW, and has demonstrated that CD has little potential to mitigate water quality issues in the present or future. This thesis has also demonstrated that understanding nutrient export processes during the NGS will be increasingly important for increasing BMP efficacy, reducing NPS contamination, and the occurrence of harmful algal blooms.

Climate Change Adaptation Capacity in Ontario Conservation Authorities

Climate Change Adaptation Capacity in Ontario Conservation Authorities PDF Author: Lyndsay Erin Kean
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780494436981
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 151

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Book Description
In Canada, anticipated climate changes including an increased frequency of hot temperature extremes and intense precipitation events, are projected to affect surface water and groundwater resources with respect to water quality and water quantity. At the watershed scale, examples of these effects include changes to water flows and water availability, runoff and evaporation patterns, and dissolved oxygen and phosphorus concentrations, with potentially negative implications. In Ontario, Conservation Authorities (CAs) play an important role in managing and protecting water resources at the watershed scale, through collaboration with the municipal and provincial governments, stakeholders and community members. The projected effects of climate change on water resources will be felt at the watershed scale and will have an impact on existing activities within CAs. Research suggests that current management practices may not be sufficient to adapt to climate change effects. Therefore, CAs should be involved in climate change adaptation. This research evaluated what capacity Ontario CAs currently have for climate change adaptation, through a case-study comparison of two CAs - the North Bay-Mattawa Conservation Authority (NBMCA) and Credit Valley Conservation (CVC). An evaluative framework with indicators of capacity in three environments - the institutional environment (i.e., presence and quality of institutional arrangements), the organizational environment (i.e., organizational resources and organizational dynamics) and the action environment (i.e., community and political support), was developed through a literature review. The evaluative framework was used to assess CA capacity for climate change adaptation through information obtained from open-ended, semi-structured key informant interviews with CA employees, a review of documentation and direct observation. The results of the evaluation revealed that the capacity for climate change adaptation varied considerably between the NBMCA and CVC, particularly in the organizational environment. CVC had strong capacity in terms of resources availability and had already begun to adapt to climate change in its watershed management activities. The NBMCA was challenged with respect to resources availability and had not yet begun to adapt to climate change. Overall, this research highlighted the importance of developing partnerships, communicating, and sharing resources and expertise with other organizations and the local community.

Climate Change and Water Deficit in a Small River Basin in South-western Ontario

Climate Change and Water Deficit in a Small River Basin in South-western Ontario PDF Author: Mary Anne Augustyn
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Waters in Peril

Waters in Peril PDF Author: Leah Bendell-Young
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461514932
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
Who Speaks for the Oceans? The question has been asked a lot in recent years - just who is looking out for our oceans? Covering over seventy percent of the earth's surface it is the world's largest common property resource,jojntly owned by over six billion humans. It is the foundation for life on earth as we know it. Over the years, many people have spoken about various aspects of our ocean environments and they have spoken to different audiences in many different ways. For many in the public realm, Jacques Cousteau spoke for the ocean. Since his passing, no single voice with the sallle public identity or recognition has emerged. Certainly the many governments bordering our oceans cannot agree on common principles or issues of ocean use and management. We might be tempted think that we do not have an ocean spokesperson or champion, but we would be wrong. Today, the rapidly growing number of scientists working hard to expand our under standing of our ocean realm are the ocean voices we should listen to. At the same time as our scientists advance their understanding of the oceans, we all need to advance our abilities and commitment to communicate on behalf of the oceans with broader and broader audiences who need to be aware of where things stand. Often called "the last great frontier", earth's oceans are vast, widely varied, and are hard to get to, arid into, to do the research we need done.