Modelling the Impact of Climate Change in the Athabasca River Basin
Aquanty has a history of working closely with producers in the oil sands region of Alberta, and we were glad to see some of that work highlighted in the Canadian Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA) June 2022 newsletter.
Aquanty and COSIA partnered up to investigate the impact the climate change is likely to exert on the hydrology of the Athabasica River basin, culminating in our final report in 2020. “The Athabasca River Basin High-Res Modelling of the Impact of Climate Change report delivered surprisingly good news, predicting hotter, wetter conditions by the century’s end. It forecast abundant water supplies that will sustain aquatic features in reclamation landscapes and maintain the region’s unique boreal ecosystem and important wetlands. “Climate change is a big driving force and has a big impact on environmental conditions,” says Hyoun-Tae Hwang, Aquanty geoscientist. “This kind of modelling information can help companies plan ahead and prepare for wetter or dryer conditions and extreme weather events.””
Click here to read The COSIA Article “MODELLING THE IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE”
“Hwang is Aquanty’s HydroGeoSphere director and he explains how the tool works. “It computes complex mathematical equations using geospatial data, such as surface features, and climate data such, as weather records. It’s like a big calculator that accounts for things such as rainfall and evaporation to simulate a big, complicated water cycle (hydrological system) with various climate scenarios.””
“As mining winds down, companies are already actioning plans to reclaim the landscape. This study goes a long way towards helping them understand how robust that reclamation will be over the decades and whether their planning is on track.”
Are you a water resources manager who needs to know how climate change will impact the hydrology of your catchment? Reach out to the Aquanty team at info@aquanty.com to see if we can help!