Community Needs, Impacts and Benefits

There are tremendous needs across the communities of the Nechako Watershed to track extreme hydrometeorological events and climate change to mitigate and adapt to their impacts. For instance, the 2022-2024 drought severely challenged the agricultural and ranching industries as crops failed and hay production plummeted across the Vanderhoof agricultural belt. The drought also led to exceptionally low water levels and high water temperatures in lakes, wetlands, ponds and streams resulting in habitat loss and exposure to lethal conditions for a variety of aquatic and riparian species. Record low water levels in the Nechako Reservoir also threatened Rio Tinto's water management efforts that otherwise rely on a consistent replenishment of water to support hydroelectricity production at the Kemano Powerhouse. Finally, the persistent drought led to intense wildfires across the Nechako Watershed yielding extended periods of poor air quality, habitat destruction and critical timber supply losses. This recent extreme event is an exemplar of conditions that the local communities, ecosystems and industries will likely face more frequently with climate change. As such, there is a growing and urgent need to enhance existing environmental monitoring across the Nechako Watershed, to provide access to data and new findings, and to equip communities with their information needs to adapt and mitigate the impacts of climate change and extreme hydrometeorological events.

This project will have multi-faceted impacts and benefits to the communities across the Nechako Watershed. First, it will lead to improved monitoring and understanding of extreme events such as droughts and atmospheric rivers along with their impacts on the landscapes and waterscapes of the Nechako Watershed. Access to real-time and archived meteorological and water temperature data will prove exceptionally useful for various industries such as forestry, agriculture and mining. For instance, real-time access to meteorological data will assist farmers and ranchers with their day-to-day activities in the Vanderhoof agricultural belt. Several First Nations, municipalities and regional districts will directly benefit from online access to data for the development of long-term water plans and for water quality monitoring. Local stewardship societies such as the Nulki-Tachick Lakes Stewardship Society (NTLSS) and the Nechako Environment and Water Stewardship Society (NEWSS) will gain valuable knowledge for their lake and stream restoration efforts.

This project will also enhance employment and training opportunities at UNBC and in northern BC. It will foster ongoing collaborations with other researchers at UNBC among other institutions while promoting interactions with private industry partners, First Nations and local communities. Trainees will acquire a unique skill set and expertise in Canada, as meager opportunities exist for them to take part in the planning and collection of field measurements, to interpret the structure and characteristics of extreme events such as droughts and atmospheric rivers, and to develop theoretical knowledge based on observations. The knowledge, computational and practical skills will be pertinent to the study of extreme climate and hydrometeorological events in all of the world's coastal and mountainous regions and 'water towers', with broader application to water resource management for regions that rely on mountain river runoff. The training will be most valuable for students in securing positions as meteorologists or hydrologists in government, industry, consulting firms, in the academic sector, or to pursue further studies.