Since the start in June 2017, the forWater Network has been contributing critical knowledge to  ensuring safe drinking water for all, in a future impacted by climate change. This unprecedented Network brings together two very distinct fields, drinking water treatment technology and forest management. Beyond bridging vastly different disciplines, the Network also spans research across Canada's 5 major ecozones. This synergy allows researchers to collaborate in unparalleled ways and explore research questions that are rarely asked.

This research truly captures source-to-tap impacts of forest management on drinking water treatability. The research conducted across disciplines and ecozones uncovers important insights into messy ecological datasets. 

For the first time, the most recent research findings from this innovative Network of researchers and industry partners are available in a report. Some key findings of interest include:

• Fine sediment tracing helps track contributions to algal blooms and impacts of roads on water quality
• Source water alkalinity as a critical component of drinking water assessment and anticipating water treatment for dissolved carbon
• Insights into sampling and diversity of potentially toxic cyanobacterial communities 
• The impact of storm flow on dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and natural organic matter dynamics in the pacific maritime ecozone
• How alternative forest management strategies show minimal impact on water quality 
• Identifying a framework for drinking water security for rural, remote, and marginalized communities in Canada
• The importance of understanding hydrology flows in boreal plains
• Each forested ecozone and its distinct chemical composition of dissolved organic matter
• Boreal shield research that shows scale-related changes in DOC and how hydro-chemical models of DOC can provide insight for water treatment

Read the full forWater Research Updates Report 2017-2020.

Ellen Cameron has been selected for the European Molecular Biology Laboratory - European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI)-Sanger postdoctoral fellowship which combines experimental (wet-lab) and computational (dry-lab) approaches to study big data in biology. The combined approach allows researchers to have easy access to scientific expertise and well-equipped facilities to exploit complex information to make discoveries that benefit humankind.

Forested watersheds supply approximately 75 per cent of global accessible freshwater resources and serve as important sources of drinking water. Both natural and anthropogenic landscape disturbances in these watersheds can negatively impact water quality in downstream environments and jeopardize water security. 

​Current PhD candidate, Soosan Bahramian, shares insights she gained during her Master's research. Although forests have not been historically managed for water, appropriate forest harvesting strategies have recently been proposed for the pre-emptive mitigation of landscape disturbance effects (e.g., wildfire and flood) on source water quality and treatability. However, this must be implemented strategically such that it does not ultimately deteriorate source quality. Soosan Bahramian, graduate student in Waterloo’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, is investigating the potential impacts of contemporary forest harvesting on water quality and treatability in Professor Monica Emelko’s forWater project.

Krishnappan BG, Stone M, Granger SJ, Upadhayay HR, Tang Q, Zhang Y, Collins AL. Experimental Investigation of Erosion Characteristics of Fine-Grained Cohesive Sediments. Water 2020, 12(5): 1511.

​We are excited to announce two upcoming talks with Professor Adrian (Adie) Collins, hydrologist and head of Sustainable Agriculture Sciences at Rothamsted Research North Wyke in the United Kingdom.

• A young professional-directed webinar on March 24 @ 11am EDT
• A stakeholder-focused webinar that is co-sponsored by the forWater Network and UW's Water Institute on May 18 @ 11 EDT

Please join us for either or both of these webinars featuring collaborator Adie Collins!