Chapter 11 Flashcards
Demand management
Management that emphasizes influencing human behaviour so that less water
or energy is used. eg pricing
Diversions
Movements of water from one water system to another in order to enhance water security,
reduce flood vulnerability, or generate hydroelectricity.
Drought
Condition in which a combination of lack of precipitation, high temperature, evaporation,
evapotranspiration, and the inability of soil to retain moisture leads to a loss of resilience among flora
and fauna in dry conditions.
E. coli (Escherichia coli)
A bacterium present in fecal matter that can get into a water supply and
pollute it, as happened in Walkerton, Ontario, in May 2000.
Estuary
Coastal regions, such as inlets or mouths of rivers, where salt water and fresh water mix.
Flood plain
Low-lying land along a river, stream, or creek or around a lake that under normal conditions
is flooded from time to time.
Heritage Rivers
Rivers designated for special protection by the Canadian Heritage Rivers Board
because of their historical, cultural, ecological, and recreational significance.
Hydrosolidarity
An approach that recognizes the interconnections among aquatic, terrestrial, and
other resource systems, leading to management that is integrated, participative, collaborative, coordinated,
and shared, whether at local, provincial, national, or international levels.
Integrated water resource management (IWRM)
An approach that promotes the coordinated
development and management of water, land, and related resources in order to maximize the result-ant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of
vital ecosystems.
International Joint Commission
A bilateral institution, consisting of three Canadian commissioners
and three American commissioners, established by the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty to manage
interjurisdictional resource issues between Canada and the United States.
James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement
Treaty signed in 1975 by the James Bay Cree and
Quebec Inuit with the Quebec government permitting the continuance of the James Bay Project and
granting to the Natives, among other things, $232.5 million in compensation and outright ownership
of 5,543 km2
, as well as exclusive hunting, fishing, and trapping rights to an additional 62,160 km2
;
often considered the first modern Aboriginal land claim settlement in Canada.
James Bay Project
A hydroelectric megaproject in northern Quebec, begun in the 1970s, that has
involved extensive dams on the La Grande and other rivers and has flooded thousands of square
kilometres of the James Bay Cree homeland.
Limiting factor principle
A principle that stipulates that all factors necessary for growth must be
available in certain quantities if an organism is to survive.
Megaprojects
Large-scale engineering or resource development projects that cost at least $1 billion
and take several years to complete.
Multi-barrier approach
A method of ensuring the quality of a water supply by using a series of
measures (e.g., system security, source protection through pollution regulations within a watershed,
water treatment and filtration, testing), each independently acting as a barrier to water-borne contaminants
through the system.
Palliser’s Triangle
A roughly triangular-shaped semi-arid area of southeast Alberta and south-west
Saskatchewan, south of the Saskatchewan River, first identified by Captain John Palliser during an
expedition to the Canadian West in 1857–60 sponsored by the Royal Geographical Society and the
British Colonial Office.
Renewable water supply
A water supply based on precipitation that falls, then runs off into rivers,
often being held in lakes before draining to the ocean or moving downward into aquifers. The flows
associated with precipitation or snowmelt should be identified as the renewable supply.
Soft path
A management approach to improving water use efficiency by challenging basic patterns
of consumption. While demand management emphasizes the question of “how,” or how to do the
same with less water, the soft path asks why water is even used for a function. The “why” question
normally leads to consideration of a broader range of methods.
- Water is treated as a service rather than as an end. In the soft path, water is not viewed as the final product, other than for a few human uses (drinking, washing) and for support of ecosystems. Instead, water is view as a means to accomplish specific functions, including sanitation, farm production, and yard maintenance. For example, the end is not to flush toilets or irrigate crops but to dispose of wastes or to grow food.
- Ecological sustainability is fundamental.
- Quality of delivered water is matched to an end-use requirement
- Determine the desire future condition, and plan back to the present
Supply management
A management approach based on manipulating the natural system to create
new sources of supply, normally through either augmenting an existing supply or developing a new
supply.
