Water Resources in Saskatchewan: Dealing with a Changing Climate
Why should we be concerned about the effects of a changing climate on water resources?
Water is one of Saskatchewan’s greatest resources. However, both too much (floods) and too little (droughts) water can cause considerable problems.
Climatic changes affect evaporation, precipitation, and runoff regimes as well as the amount of water in lakes, wetlands, reservoirs, snow-cover, soil moisture, glaciers and groundwater. Climate also affects water quality.
What are some climate change impacts that are expected for water resources?
Longer growing seasons and higher temperatures mean increased water loss by evaporation as well as increased consumption and demand for water.
More frequent and extreme droughts mean water scarcity and water quality problems. Losses in agricultural and industrial production as well as increased wildfire risk are associated with droughts.
Although climate change effects on groundwater are uncertain, shallow aquifers are at risk of declining water yield related to decreased snow-cover amounts and shorter winter seasons. Increased winter precipitation (rain and snow) may offset these trends.
Expected changes in stream-flow include earlier peak flows, declining summer flows, increasing winter flows.
Decreasing flows from glaciers to streams are expected and would exacerbate water shortages. Glacial contributions to stream-flow are especially important in drought years.
Warmer and less surface water will tend to decrease their quality and increase the need for monitoring and treatment.
Wetlands are projected to decline with further warming. This trend would lead to losses in their valuable functions, including groundwater recharge, wildlife habitat, flooding control, water storage, and aesthetics.
Warmer winters mean more frequent and longer mid-winter thaws and rain-on-snow events. These trends could increase the risk of flooding.
Increasing demand for water in many user sectors driven by warmer conditions would tend to increase conflict among different water users and require managers to deal with increasing risk of conflict especially during droughts.
How can society adapt to decrease the negative effects of climate change and increase the positive effects? Types of adaptation strategies include institutional, structural, behavioral, and research. Ideas for adaptation include:
Find out what climate changes are occurring now and estimate the effects.
Find out more about future climate change trends (link with the climate change section) and their possible effects.
Estimate how sensitive your operations or systems are to these changes in water availability and supplies (timing, amounts, and quality).
Test and evaluate your options to determine which management practices work best in a changing climate.
Use water and soil conservation practices.
Use improved safety procedures to deal with effects of extreme weather events such as drought and heat waves, intense rain storms and floods.
Develop water management plans with components to address water scarcity (droughts) and excess water (intense rainfall events and flooding).
Work towards building a flexible and resilient water management system that will be able to cope with change and surprise.
Government of Canada's Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Program provides funding for research and activities to improve our knowledge of Canada’s vulnerability to climate change, to better assess the risks and benefits posed by climate change and to build the foundation upon which appropriate decisions on adaptation can be made.
