Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy: Departmental Website Component of the 2012-2013 Report on Plans and Priorities

WaterSense is a voluntary, market-based partnership program sponsored by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It seeks to promote water efficiency and enhance the market for water-efficient products, programs, and practices by helping consumers identify products and programs that meet certain water efficiency and performance criteria.

In January 2011, Environment Canada (EC) signed a promotional partnership agreement with EPA outlining the roles and responsibilities of each party with respect to WaterSense delivery in Canada.

EC will work with members of the Canadian WaterSense Consortium (CWC) to promote WaterSense labelled products and fixtures to Canadians in general, and to federal facilities managers, other levels of government, industry, manufacturers and the retail sectors in particular, to help ensure that more responsible decisions are made with respect to efficient water use.

Performance expectations:

• EC will compile information on our activities to meet the obligations outlined in the WaterSense promotional partnerships agreement; including, outreach and promotional activities at conferences and on EC’s website; and, the number of pages translated and made available to Canadian organizations on the web.
• The performance of the program will be documented by Environment Canada in an annual report to EPA starting in 2012–2013. Information will be provided on partner activities, successes, challenges and other feedback including data, such as retail sales of WaterSense products.

Environment Canada will collaborate with federal colleagues, research institutions, other jurisdictions, and environmental non-government organisations to promote sustainable water management tools and mechanisms including information on water pricing, modelling, education and outreach.

Performance expectations:

• Performance will be measured by number of partners, type of partner, type of promotional material and reach of promotional material.

Water models are necessary tools for water management decision-making and for the assessment of the impacts of future changes on water availability, including socio-economic developments, policy and climatic changes.

A numerical Water Availability Model is being developed for the integrated assessment of water use and availability at the watershed level. In addition, a numerical river ice simulation model (RIVICE) is being developed for the analysis of flooding due to river ice jams. Both models are being tested and initially applied in areas of greatest federal interest.

In addition, coupled and ensemble modeling approaches for water cycle and environmental prediction are being used by Meteorological Service of Canada and Science and Technology Branch to better inform water resource management decision-making. For instance, the model for the Upper Great Lakes will be operational next year.

Performance expectations:

• An updated version of the Water Availability Model is validated and documented.
• The Water Availability Model is applied to pilot watersheds of federal interest, including the Okanagan River Basin and South Saskatchewan River Basin.
• The first version of the RIVICE model is tested by provincial and private sector collaborators.
• Analyze web metrics of the Water section of Environment Canada’s website to indicate reach and use of comprehensive and timely information on water-related issues designed to improve knowledge of water.
• Number of site visits to the Water Survey of Canada’s historical water level and streamflow pages of the Environment Canada website.
• Number of site visits to the Water Survey of Canada’s real time water quantity data pages of the Wateroffice - Environment Canada website.

A variety of web and print based information is available to Canadians regarding water science, extent, availability, sector use and best management practices. The following is a list of some of the websites:

• The Water website is the most comprehensive location regarding Environment Canada's role in water management.
• The Water Science and Technology (S&T) website provides access to information on water research (Research Topics), water science expertise (S&T Expert), key water S&T reports, and the S&T into Action series documenting the benefits of EC’s water research programs and projects to Canadians.
• The Water Science News is e-published and disseminated externally every two months and provides updates on current water research and new journal articles published by EC scientists.
• The Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators (CESI) initiative reports on environmental indicators that track the long-term trends for issues of key concern to Canadians, including national, regional and local changes in water levels.
• Historical water level and stream flow data is available from Canada's national HYDAT (Hydroclimatological Data Retrieval Program) archive.
• Real time and historical (archived) water levels and stream flow is publicly available from the Water Survey of Canada Real-Time Data.

Performance expectations:

• Analyze web metrics of the Water section of Environment Canada’s Web site to indicate reach and use of comprehensive and timely information on water-related issues designed to improve knowledge of water.
• Number of site visits to the Freshwater pages of the Environment Canada website
• Number of site visits to the Water S&T pages of the Environment Canada website.
• Growth in requests for subscription to Water Science News.

The Water Survey of Canada is the national authority responsible for the collection, interpretation and dissemination of standardized water resource data and information in Canada. In partnership with the provinces, territories and other agencies, the Water Survey of Canada operates over 2,500 active hydrometric gauges across the country. For further information please visit Environment Canada’s water survey website.

Performance expectations:

• One hundred per cent (100 %) availability of preliminary water level and discharge data available via the internet for real-time hydrometric stations within 24 hours of occurrence.

Use of coupled and ensemble modeling approaches for water cycle and environmental prediction to better inform water resource management decision-making - this is being conducted by Meteorological Service of Canada and Science and Technology Branch (e.g. operationalizing the model for the Upper Great Lakes will be completed next year).

A numerical Water Availability Model is being developed for the integrated assessment of water use and availability at the watershed level, to be applied in areas of federal interest. In addition, a numerical river ice simulation model (RIVICE) is being developed for the analysis of flooding due to river ice jams and tested in areas of federal interest.

Water models are necessary tools for water management decision-making and for the assessment of the impacts of future changes in water use, including socio-economic developments, policy and climate change.

Performance expectations:

• Testing and documentation of an updated version of the Water Availability Model.
• Initial Water Availability Model demonstration applications on pilot watersheds of federal interest, including the Okanagan River Basin and South Saskatchewan River Basin.
• First version of RIVICE model tested by provincial and private sector collaborators.

The Municipal Water and Wastewater Survey (MWWS) is produced under Part IV (Public Information Program) of the Canada Water Act. Conducted every two or three years since the early 1980s, the survey collects data on water sources, water use, water conservation, wastewater treatment level and water and wastewater pricing in all Canadian municipalities with a population over 1000 and a sample of those with population under 1000 (excluding First Nations communities).

Statistics Canada conducts three other surveys on water use; namely, the Industrial Water Use Survey, the Survey of Drinking Water Plants and the Agriculture Water Use Survey. Together with MWWS, these assist in establishing sectoral water use baseline data.

Performance expectations:

• Make summary tables of data and datasets available on Environment Canada’s website.
• Produce reports on municipal water use and municipal water pricing which summarizes the data and continues the ongoing trend-line analyses of previous surveys.
• Compile data from the four water use surveys to establish sectoral water use baseline data by March 2013.

Water availability status in Canada must be tracked to help ensure continued sustainability of fresh water for human use and ecosystem support. Water availability refers to the volume of water in our rivers compared with the amount of water we are using.

A water availability indicator (WAI) was developed by calculating the ratio of water demand to water availability at the sub-drainage area scale (representing 164 watersheds across Canada) on an annual basis. Following an initial focus on sub-drainage areas that have existing or potential water scarcity problems, the first national results of the water availability initiative were published in 2011.

Performance expectations:

• Publication of the water availability indicator for all sub-drainage areas in Canada.
• Water demand and availability ratio for the Mixed Grassland Case Study will be reported in the Canada Water Act Annual Report.
• Publication on the CESI website of a water quantity indicator focusing on streamflow across Canada.

The International River Improvements Act (IRIA) requires an application for a licence for the construction, operation and maintenance of works on international rivers that would significantly affect flows and levels at the border. Each licence is granted following a hydro-technical assessment that is integrated into the review process under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA). The service standard requires that IRIA licences be issued within 90 days of a CEAA decision.

Environment Canada conducts hydrological and hydraulic studies to support the assessment of surface water quantity issues related to international river improvements, as well as environmental assessments of Major Projects Management Office infrastructure projects in areas of federal interest.

Performance expectations:

• Number of hydro-technical assessments conducted as part of the IRIA licensing process, within the timeline of the service standard.
• Number of environmental assessments (hydro-technical component) provided, within timelines set by the Major Project Management Office.

Environment Canada (EC) will conduct a gap analysis and develop a framework or tool for gathering baseline data in water use and water efficiency activities for EC facilities.

Performance expectations:

• Report on Water Use/Water Efficiency in Federal Facilities