INNOVATIVE
Water Institute researchers are developing new ideas, products and technologies to address water problems and make an impact on our world for generations to come.
$234+
MILLION
IN RESEARCH FUNDING
since 2009
$7.5
MILLION
in new project funding due to Seed Grant program
290+
COLLABORATIVE WATER PROGRAM STUDENTS
since 2013
What does COVID in our wastewater tell us?
Mark Servos, Water Institute member and professor of Biology, has worked tirelessly since the advent of the pandemic to develop and apply methods to measure COVID-19 in wastewater. These measurements have since been used at more than 10 locations across Ontario to understand how the virus behaves across communities. Complementary to daily case counts reported by public health units, the wastewater analysis provides communities with an additional tool to monitor changes and trends of infections at population level.
The team’s work is part of the Province of Ontario’s wastewater surveillance initiative.
“The University of Waterloo has been one of the pioneers in Ontario doing wastewater testing. Since wastewater is a collective sample of an entire area, this approach provides a complimentary tool for regional public health units to identify influxes in COVID-19 cases.”
Mark Servos
Maximizing nitrate removal through wetlands
In a warming climate, hypoxic, low oxygen coastal zones are expected to grow larger and persist for longer periods, making it of even greater importance to decrease the export of excess nutrients from intensively managed landscapes to coastal waters.
Nandita Basu, Water Institute member and professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth and Environmental Sciences, has examined 30 million wetlands across the USA to determine the magnitude of nitrogen being removed by wetlands. The study identified how the loss of these wetlands would impact water quality, how wetland restoration efforts maximize nitrogen removal and the costs associated with wetland restoration.
Basu’s work provides important context for restoration dialogue and represents a step towards a more nuanced, landscape-scale understanding of the current and potential role of wetlands in improving water quality and reducing coastal eutrophication.
How the Great Lakes economy will be impacted by climate change
The significant water resources of the Great Lakes are under increasing pressure due to growing populations, urbanization, agricultural intensification, industrial use, and climate change, potentially limiting their availability for future generations.
Roy Brouwer, Water Institute executive director and professor of Economics, has developed a novel integrated hydro-economic model for the Great Lakes, making the often unseen value of water more explicit to policy and decision-makers.
The first of its kind model analyzes the direct and indirect impacts of possible future water use restrictions due to climate change on economic activities and will assist in designing sustainable water extraction policies or contingency plans for the Great Lakes economy to deal with potential future water scarcity threats.
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