Monica Emelko, Canada Research Chair in Water Science, Technology and Policy, and professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has recently been named section editor for Climate Change for the new peer-reviewed, open access journal, PLOS Water. 
PLOS Water brings together research of the highest standards for water as a vital human resource for communities in every region of the world.

​Topics covered include:

• water sanitation and hygiene
• sustainable water consumption, management, and supply
• resource recovery and utilization
• applied water governance and policy
• socio-behavioural research

HQP and Network members can look forward to an engaging fall with a stellar line up of training webinars available throughout October and November.

For newer students, “ST3 Week” refers to the annual forWater source-to-tap training week, which would normally be an in-person series of learning/training events focused on topics relevant to forWater. In past years, this has occurred in Halifax, Nova Scotia and Alberta's Rocky Mountains, and the 2022 version is set for Vancouver Island.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic this year's series will be virtual allowing us the flexibility to cover topics that were underrepresented in the past.

Thursday October 28, 12pm EDT, 1pm ADT, 9am PDT, 10am MDT

Managing sediment-associated phosphorus to prevent cyanobacterial blooms in drinking water reservoirs

Join forWater Network member, Nik Knezic, as he explores the dynamic topic of sediment-associated phosphorus on
Tuesday September 21 at 12pm EST.
​Contact Elanor for access.

Webinar Details
To ensure the uninterrupted supply of adequate amounts of drinking water, many utilities rely on reservoirs for raw (i.e., untreated) water storage prior to treatment. Reservoirs are not typically managed for influxes of fine sediment and associated nutrients, which are more frequent in many areas because of climate change-exacerbated landscape disturbances such as wildfires and extreme precipitation.

​Fine sediment is the primary vector of phosphorus transport in aquatic systems, which notably is the limiting nutrient for primary productivity in freshwater. Algae, especially cyanobacteria, blooms are one of the biggest threats to water quality and the provision of safe drinking water globally. Here, a series of lab- and field-scale analyses were conducted to (i) describe phosphorus release from fine sediment in a raw water reservoir, (ii) characterize its availability for biological uptake, (iii) evaluate phosphorus inactivation by application of common coagulants (FeCl3, alum, PACl), and (iv) evaluate the combination of strategically-timed reservoir dredging and coagulant application on phosphorus inactivation and turbidity reduction.

Nik's bio
Nik joined the WaterSTP group in January 2019 under the supervision of Dr. Monica Emelko after spending two years working in the water chemistry field with General Electric’s Water division. He had previously completed a BASc in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Waterloo in 2017. In August 2021 he received his MASc in Civil Engineering. Nik’s current doctoral research focuses on investigating climate change adaptation strategies for protecting source water reservoir quality.

The Environmental Virology and Ecology Research Group (i.e., ENVERG; https://uwaterloo.ca/environmental-virology-ecology-research-group/) led by Dr. Nissimov is recruiting a domestic or international PhD student to investigate the interactions between harmful algal bloom-forming species and their viruses.

Project Scope: Aquatic viruses are now viewed as major drivers of biogeochemical cycles and as crucial components that shape microbial food webs. Our main understanding of these viruses derives predominantly from their study in marine habitats. To that end, it is widely accepted that they can control the abundance of dominant microbial communities, decide the faith of algal blooms, and affect the diversity of microorganisms in coastal and oceanic environments. Nevertheless, despite the ecological and societal importance of freshwater environments, our understanding of the role of viruses in freshwater habitats is at its infancy. The PhD student will work in a collaborative and cross-disciplinary environment to identify and isolate from Canadian lakes novel microalgal/cyanobacterial hosts and their viruses, investigate their diversity and co-occurrence in situ, and conduct infection-dynamics experiments in the laboratory. Collectively, these will begin to unravel the ecological significance of virus infection of harmful algal blooms in lakes.

For application details, download the PDF.

As part of Singapore’s International Water Week 2021, Water Institute member Monica Emelko, Canada Research Chair in Water Science, Technology and Policy at the University of Waterloo, was invited to share her expertise at one of the Thematic Webinars focused on climate change, water quality and health. In her talk entitled “Source Water Protection and Climate Change Adaptation for Treatment Resilience”, Emelko explored how climate change poses an array of uncertainties to the provision of adequate amounts of safe drinking water that, if not addressed, could ultimately lead to negative public health impacts. Adaptation case studies were introduced, drawing from her work evaluating trade-offs between grey (i.e., engineered) and green (i.e., natural) infrastructure. 
Monica noted that supply diversification in rural, remote, and marginalized communities is often not feasible because alternate supplies might not always be available or cost-effective. In contrast, landscape management-based approaches can deliver a myriad of larger watershed scale co-benefits that include reduced drinking water treatment costs and cost-sharing opportunities and ecosystem diversity and other socio-cultural benefits (e.g., spiritual value, recreation). These approaches can be especially relevant for rural, remote, and marginalized communities including many Canadian communities reliant on forested watersheds for water.