Integrated Water Monitoring

Two National Examples:

• Program Integration in Automated Water Monitoring
• Integrating Biological Information into Water Quality Monitoring

Integrating Water Quality and Water Quantity Monitoring Stations

A new National Automated Water Quality Monitoring Network was implemented in 2006 as part of the Water Quality Monitoring and Reporting Program of Environment Canada. An automated water quality monitor usually consists of a multiparameter water quality probe, a datalogger, and sophisticated telemetry and communication capabilities that transmit the data in near real-time straight to the internet. Units are deployed for continuous data collection for a few weeks up to a few months, depending on the stream conditions. Data collected with the probes include dissolved oxygen, pH, conductivity, turbidity, and temperature.

This type of monitoring allows the user to gather a time series of representative water quality data for trends, baseline, and early warning and can provide water quality information to managers and the public in near real-time on the internet. The network also contributes information to other programs, such as the Water Quality Indicator (WQI) of the Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicator (CESI) initiative.

This year there will be approximately 45 sites in the network, including sites run by Environment Canada and sites by provincial, territorial, First Nation, and industry partners in other existing networks. Three sites in the national network are located in remote locations of the Northwest Territories, while over half are established in Atlantic Canada, including sites from the Newfoundland & Labrador and Nova Scotia provincial networks. In Quebec, stations are also equipped for automated collection of water samples in addition to the physical parameters measured with sensors. One new site this year will be deployed as a buoy in the mouth of the Fraser River. The focus in 2007/8 is to develop a national data and information management system that will enable data to be provided to the public in near real-time on the internet. Another goal is to develop and document a national standard methods manual including QA/QC protocols and standardized terminology.

The new network will encourage better integration of water quality monitoring sites with existing hydrometric stations of the Meteorological Service of Canada monitoring water quantity. Co-locating these stations allows for monitoring and use of complementary data, shared capacity when maintaining the station, and shared Environment Canada infrastructure including dataloggers, communication equipment and shelters. Also, collaboration with our hydrometric colleagues is key for successful installation of new stations to enable transmission of integrated water (quantity and quality) data. Almost all the automated water quality stations in the current network are integrated with hydrometric stations.

In June, experts from Environment Canada’s Water Quality Monitoring and Surveillance Division developing this network shared their experience and knowledge at a national Real-time Water Quality Monitoring Workshop hosted by the Government of Newfoundland & Labrador Water Resources Management Division in St. Johns. More than 60 water quality experts from across Canada involved in the fast-growing field of automated, near real-time, and in-situ monitoring in streams and lakes attended. EC gave an overview of the new national network, along with more detailed presentations of selected network sites in the Pacific-Yukon and Atlantic regions.

Integrating Biological Information into Water Quality Monitoring with the Canadian Aquatic Biomonitoring Network (CABIN)

The Canadian Aquatic Biomonitoring Network (CABIN) has entered its second year of national implementation as part of Environment Canada’s water quality monitoring and reporting program. In CABIN, benthic macro-invertebrates, habitat, and stream measurements are collected at a site using a standard protocol for the assessment of stream condition. Environment Canada aims at building reference (i.e. best available condition, least impacted) site collections across the country to assess impairment in stream ecosystems using the well established Reference Condition Approach (RCA).

In 2006, over 90 new reference sites were collected in selected basins across Canada including the Okanagan, Mackenzie, and Annapolis River, as well as in Riding Mountain, St. Lawrence Islands, Gwaii Haanas, La Mauricie, and other National Parks across Canada. Parks Canada is a key CABIN partner with a shared interest in aquatic ecosystem monitoring as well as providing prime locations for establishing reference sites. Parks will use the stream information collected using the CABIN protocol for reporting in their Ecological Integrity (EI) Program http://www.pc.gc.ca/progs/np-pn/eco_integ/index_e.asp.

Traditionally, our water quality monitoring programs are based on chemical and physical measures. In CABIN, benthic macro-invertebrate communities are used to assess freshwater ecosystem condition. By integrating biological information into our national water quality monitoring program we are collecting complementary data that provide an “effect” measurement for the freshwater system caused by stressors, such as changes in water quantity and habitat degradation. 

In May, the Pacific & Yukon Water Quality Monitoring Office delivered a CABIN training workshop to watershed groups from the Columbia Basin at the College of the Rockies in Cranbrook, BC, at a session sponsored by the Columbia Basin Trust and organized by the Kootenay River Network-BC.  Parks Canada staff from Prince Albert in Saskatchewan and the rocky mountain parks in British Columbia and Alberta, as well as staff from the BC Ministry of Environment, Kootenay Region and Selkirk College, also recently received CABIN training. The workshop resulted in initiation of the first multi-partnered basin-wide study in the national CABIN program with all seven of the rocky mountain parks adopting the CABIN protocol for stream monitoring.

This year, the Environment Canada (EC) CABIN team as well as numerous provincial, territorial, federal, First Nation, community, and academic partners will continue building reference site collections across the country in basins sampled last year and in other National Parks, including Bruce Peninsula, Kejimkujik, and the Torngat Mountains among others. CABIN is also expanding in the north as part of an International Polar Year (IPY) project. New technological innovations that will support these initiatives are being pursued through research led by Donald Baird, including development of DNA barcoding approaches to taxa identification, in partnership with the University of Guelph. 

The success of previous training workshops such as these has generated a high demand for CABIN training, nationally, to learn and implement the standard protocol. In response, Environment Canada, in partnership with the Canadian Rivers Institute (CRI) at the University of New Brunswick is currently developing a new training program consisting of five on-line modules followed by a short 1-2 day certification workshop. The new program should be available in 2008.

The Canadian Aquatic Biomonitoring Network (CABIN) is a national, collaborative program and network for collecting, assessing and distributing information on the biological condition and biodiversity of aquatic ecosystems in Canada.As a network of networks, EC collaborates with others to understand the status of Canada’s freshwater while providing partners with tools and reference data to apply to their own biological monitoring programs.

Development of the automated water quality monitoring program and the aquatic biomonitoring (CABIN) program is coordinated nationally by Giselle Bouchard of the National Water Quality Monitoring Office. Read more about CABIN at… http://cabin.cciw.ca/

Leah Brannen
S&T Liaison