Dr. John Pomeroy | The Status and Future of Freshwater Supply in Canada | 2024-03-06 | CACOR Zoom

Speaker:  Dr. John Pomeroy

Subject: The Status and Future of Freshwater Supply in Canada

Time: Mar 6, 2024 13:30 Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Summary:

Climate change, land cover change and changing water management are altering the supply of freshwater in Canada such that it is no longer reliable in some regions of the country.  This talk will review the expected implications for Canadian hydrology of changes to climate, land cover and water management and then zero in on a few regions where water stress due to semi-arid climates or circumpolar climates are expected to increase this century.  Predicted changes to the hydrology and water supply of the Mackenzie, Saskatchewan and Okanagan River basins will be reviewed.  Then, the impacts of deglaciation, permafrost thaw and reduced snow cover as well as impacts of loss of forest cover will be discussed along with adaptation and management options that need to be considered in these river basins and across Canada.

Bio:

Dr. John Pomeroy is Director of the Global Water Futures Programme – the largest, and most published university-led freshwater research project in the world and its follow-on the Global Water Futures Observatories Project.  At the University of Saskatchewan, he is the Canada Research Chair in Water Resources and Climate Change, UNESCO Chair in Mountain Water Sustainability, Distinguished Professor of Geography, Director of the Centre for Hydrology, and Director of the Coldwater Laboratory, Canmore, AB. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the American Geophysical Union and the Royal Geographical Society and serves as Institute Professor of the Biogeoscience Institute of the University of Calgary and Adjunct Professor of the University of Waterloo and of Wilfrid Laurier University. For the World Climate Research Programme, Pomeroy leads the International Network for Alpine Research Catchment Hydrology project.  He was elected to represent Academia on the Steering Committee of the Water and Climate Coalition of UN agencies.

Dr. Pomeroy was the 2021 recipient of the Walter Langbein Lecture Award for hydrology from the American Geophysical Union, 2019 recipient of the Miroslaw Romanowski Medal for environmental science from the Royal Society of Canada, and the 2017 recipient of the J Tuzo Wilson Medal for geophysics from the Canadian Geophysical Union.  He has served as the founder and President of the International Commission on Snow and Ice Hydrology, Chair of the International Decade for Predictions in Ungauged Basins, President of the Canadian Geophysical Union, the first Professor of Hydrology in Wales at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Research Scientist with Environment Canada and the USDA Forest Service and a NATO Science Fellow at the University of East Anglia, England. His primary research interests are snow hydrology, the impact of land use and climate change on hydrology and water quality, and improved observation and prediction of climate change impacts, especially floods and droughts. He has developed several hydrological models and a network of hydrological research basins. Dr. Pomeroy has authored over 400 research articles and reports and several books that have been cited over 25,000 times.

Participants

Presentation Slides.