| Abstract/Description or Keywords |
This report collects the documents generated as part of a two year effort to catalogue the variety of water quality and quantity data that has been collected in the Columbia Basin Trust region of British Columbia. Through the cataloguing effort, a number of important data and knowledge gaps were identified and specific recommendations developed. The available water quantity and climate data was then used in a number of analyses focused on understanding the relationship between changing climate conditions and stream discharges. One overall finding is that there is a large variety of data collected and held by various different entities. These data sets exist in a variety of sometimes inconsistent formats, with different and sometimes challenging means of access. A unifying recommendation is that the Columbia Basin Trust, alone or in cooperation with other agencies, work to develop a data repository to collect and archive data sets and link to other data sources, and a portal to provide easy access for researchers and the public to this data. The first two sections of the report catalogue the different data types and sources available. Water quantity data is described within the categories of climate, snow and glaciers, streams and rivers, lakes and reservoirs, and groundwater. Substantial gaps exist in the coverage of monitoring across the categories, particularly in more remote areas and higher elevations. Water quality data is less complete than the quantity data. Many water quality measures require some level of technical skill to collect, rendering the coverage even less complete than for the water quantity data. Expanding the network of water quantity measurement stations, increasing the number of people trained to collect water quality samples, and supporting them to do so, are recommendations that follow from inventorying the water quality and quantity data. The next sections provide a more detailed overview of the data, with a particular emphasis on the observed and potential impacts of climate change. Based on the available data, temperatures in the Columbia Basin Trust area have increased by more than a degree Celsius in the last 100 years. This has coincided with a shift in precipitation towards more rain and less snow. However, there is insufficient data to accurately understand and estimate the effects at higher elevations, to measure evaporation, and to detect short term, intense weather events. The dams built as part of the Columbia River Treaty have substantially changed the local ecology, flooding important riparian habitats and highly productive low elevation land areas, as well as displacing human settlements. There is limited data available to develop a comprehensive understanding of the changes that building the treaty dams have had on water quality and aquatic ecology. Beyond the impoundments, there is almost no information on the natural aquatic habitats in the region, particularly in the headwater regions where changes can have cascading ecological effects downstream. Going forward, continuing and expanding monitoring efforts and data warehousing will be necessary to monitor the continuing evolution of the system, and to detect and as appropriate mitigate the effects of a changing climate. The existing stream discharge data were analyzed to detect trends, and relate these trends to large scale climate changes. Consistent with other studies conducted in the American northern Rocky Mountains, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and the El NiĖo Southern Oscillation (ENSO) are important predictors of discharge levels. The measured impacts differed somewhat across the basin, broadly exhibiting the same general trends. However, the northeast region, an area with more high elevation areas and greater glaciation, was inconsistent with the findings from the other regions. This again highlights the importance of extending monitoring into the higher elevation areas of the basin. As found elsewhere, there is evidence that the relationship between climate variables and discharge has changed in recent times. Model results suggest that discharges are trending differently from the generally accepted projections. Given the important role that water yield from the Canadian portion of the Columbia River plays in this international river basin, increased monitoring and further analysis is recommended. Snow accumulation and glaciers are important contributors to the timing and volume of stream discharge in the basin. Monitoring of the snowpack is reasonably well covered at lower elevations. However, beyond 2000 meters above mean sea level monitoring is spotty. Snowfall at these elevations is important for glacial accumulation, measurement of which is necessary if we are to predict the future contributions of glaciers to discharge. Data on glacial mass is almost completely absent. Inferences made from observed late season stream discharges suggest that for many streams in the Columbia Basin Trust area, the contributions of glacial melt to stream flow has peaked and is declining. Expanding the high elevation snowpack monitoring and conducting more detailed investigations into the changes in glacial mass and behavior will help to more accurately forecast changes in stream discharge. Groundwater resources in the basin are poorly understood. There are five groundwater monitoring wells in the basin. The valley fills are due to repeated glaciations, resulting in a complex pattern of aquifers. Little detail is known about these aquifers, their sources, and their potential yields. Beyond direct human use, groundwater also plays an important role in sustaining late season stream flows, particularly in lower elevation areas that do not have year round snow. Groundwater contributions also play a role in regulating water temperatures, which can be important for fish survival, particularly during the warmer parts of the summer. The ecological role of groundwater may increase with climate change. However, it is uncertain whether climate change will increase or reduce recharge rates, and consequently how groundwater yields will change. Better monitoring and more detailed modeling of groundwater resources will be important for better managing this resource and the impacts of climate change. The catalogued data has permitted a few specific analyses to be conducted. However, there are a number of areas where data is almost completely absent. Some specific areas where data is limited include: wet and dry deposition of atmospheric contaminants around the basin, water quality impacts of the transition in the source of stream water from snow and glacial melt towards rain, monitoring and assessing the impacts of invasive species, and the sources and levels of pharmaceuticals and other introduced compounds. There has also been little effort to understand the cumulative effects of all the changes that are taking place throughout the basin. As much as there are gaps in the data collected, and in the accessibility of these data to researchers and the general public, there is also a lack of sustained capacity to interpret these data and recommend management options. Data is not knowledge, and simply addressing the data gaps does not address the knowledge gaps. The final recommendation is to make a sustained commitment to building capacity within the basin, both through educating basin residents and in particular recruiting and retaining expertise that is committed to the region. This capacity is the critical link in translating data into knowledge, and investing in this capacity building should not be overlooked. |
