by Jeff Wiehler from the Land Use Planning Hub A land use plan is a blueprint for the future. It sets out goals for a specific region and then identify what activities, uses or development best fit in the goals. There are two key parts of land use planning: What area or region will be covered by the plan The goals and uses applicable to that region The challenges of land use planning typically fall to the second aspect: what set of regulations best reflect the environmental, social and economic goals of a region? How can competing uses or values be considered? These questions are t ..read more

By Mary Kruk, Water Data Specialist, DataStream As of 2020, the water quality in 60 per cent of Canadian watersheds remains unknown. Although diverse groups across the country monitor their local waterways and collect a great deal of water data, this information is often not available or easily comparable for various reasons, including if the information is stored using different formats. This lack of easily accessible water data is a major problem. It makes managing Canadian watersheds, which make up 20 per cent of the world’s freshwater, much more difficult, as creating good public poli ..read more

Eight years ago, one of the most devastating floods in Calgary’s history carved its way through southern Alberta, displacing thousands of people from their homes. One such Alberta resident, Victoria Pleavin of WaterSMART Solutions, now recalls her personal experience on the eighth anniversary of the 2013 southern Alberta floods. "In June 2013 I was living in Mission, Calgary, less than one block from the Elbow River,” Victoria recalls. “I remember the morning of June 20th seeing several pictures posted of extreme flooding happening upstream in Canmore and thinking, ‘that is coming my way ..read more

The Alberta WaterPortal Society’s submission for Let’s Talk About Water’s 2021 International Film competition emphasizes the benefits that properly managed grasslands can have on water quality and ecosystem health ..read more

By Alixx Hettinga, Communications Coordinator for the WaterPortal Society The Alberta WaterPortal Society is releasing fun, new, online materials to make learning about water an adventure you can have from home. These new resources include interactive games and short animations that make learning fun for everyone. They explore how human actions impact the Nexus between communities, agriculture, and energy, and the resource that ties them all together: water. As the population in Alberta increases, users must contemplate how to balance the demand for water for food, energy, people and the envir ..read more

Every July, Friends of Fish Creek hosts its annual Creekfest event, an entertaining and interactive learning experience that is both family friendly and free of charge. This year, COVID-19 has unfortunately restricted our ability to meet in person, but that will not impede the continuance of this amazing educational opportunity. To keep its yearly public outreach going strong, Friends of Fish Creek is putting on Creekfest - Reimagined!, a collection of integrated virtual offerings from multiple organizations over the course of July 18-24, 2020.    ..read more

By Kathryn Wagner of Inside Education and Brie Nelson of the Alberta WaterPortal Society The Alberta WaterPortal Society and Inside Education have a shared goal of helping Alberta teachers and students understand the interconnectedness of our water, food and energy systems: The nexus! Connections arise because these systems are reliant not only on each other, but also on the same limited resources. Our systems of producing energy require water; water pumping and treatment requires energy; agricultural production and the whole supply chain requires both water and energy; and our human communiti ..read more

This spring, the Alberta WaterPortal Society partnered with Canadian non-profit, Waterlution to support the development and facilitation of the Water Innovation Lab (WIL) happening in Alberta this fall (October 5-11).  The WaterPortal is very excited about becoming Waterlution’s strategic partner on this project because WIL is an incredible program that puts the Portal’s mission, of improved water management through increased education and awareness, into action. WIL advances this goal by bringing together the brightest and most passionate water leaders to create innovative ideas and pro ..read more

By François-Nicolas Robinne of Global Water Futures North America is perpetually burning, or so it seems! California is experiencing year-long fire seasons, the last two years have been the worst fire seasons on record in British Columbia, and the town of High Level in northern Alberta was evacuated late-May to the out-of-control Chuckegg Creek wildfire. With the hot and dry conditions we have already experienced this spring, it may be a harbinger of another rough summer.  In a context of the climate crisis in which wildfires in Canada will likely happen more often, get bigger and be more ..read more