U of A, EPCOR team up to launch water research centre
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A $1.4-million partnership between the U of A and EPCOR will allow a new water research centre to tackle global challenges related to supply and demand, treatment and reuse, and infrastructure. (Photo: Getty Images)
The University of Alberta has launched an interdisciplinary research centre aimed at keeping water and wastewater services safe, reliable and sustainable for generations to come.
Based in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the School of Mining and Petroleum Engineering, the Water Research Centre was kick-started with a contribution of $1.4 million from EPCOR as the founding member. The centre will draw on expertise across faculties to examine problems of water supply, demand, treatment, reuse and infrastructure.
The launch follows decades of world-leading research at the U of A exploring a range of water-related topics, and specific projects within the Water Research Centre will build on water research already underway at the university, says director Mohamed Gamal El-Din,
“It’s not just about engineering and science,” he says. “It also includes sociology, rural economy, Indigenous communities, and anything related to water across the entire university to cover a wide variety of global challenges related to water.”
Gamal El-Din adds that the heightened risk of extreme weather events threatening global water supplies, sanitation and infrastructure is accelerating the need to improve wastewater treatment practices and address environmental issues surrounding safe water supplies.
“This could put us on the national and international map, highlighting the research we’ve been doing for years and putting us in contact with other centres we might end up collaborating with.”
“The Water Research Centre will be a catalyst, bringing together experts from education, industry and government to address critical water-related problems and explore opportunities,” says John Elford, president and CEO of EPCOR. “Together, we can protect this essential resource and keep providing safe, reliable and sustainable water and wastewater services — today and for generations to come.”
U of A researchers will work with national and international institutions, governments and academia on fundamental and applied research, says Gamal El-Din. The centre will develop a water-related global network of experts, practitioners and academics across disciplines and create a pipeline to facilitate the transfer of knowledge to a wide range of collaborators including water industries, government ministries, utilities, agriculture, and municipalities and communities.
Gamal El-Din notes that the centre will also train students and postdoctoral fellows in water issues, giving them opportunities for broad collaboration.
“Working together we can accomplish a lot more for society than working individually.”
Areas of research focus will be divided into three categories — water supply; water demand, treatment and reuse; and water infrastructure. The centre plans to work directly with remote, underserved and Indigenous communities to tackle critical issues of water supply and safety.
Researchers in the Faculty of Engineering hope to collaborate with colleagues in the U of A’s College of Natural and Applied Sciences as well as in the health and social sciences to provide “integrated solutions to critical water-related problems,” he says.
EPCOR will provide in-kind support in the form of providing water and wastewater samples as well as access to infrastructure for certain projects and hands-on training or work opportunities for students and researchers involved in the centre, says Gamal El-Din.
“We’re trying to cover the entire water cycle,” he says. “That would include rainfall, infiltration into soil, runoff into rivers, groundwater — the whole hydrological cycle — as well as how water is used in society in municipal, industrial, commercial and agricultural contexts, and how all of that affects the environment.”
He adds that researchers will also look at how extremes related to climate change, such as droughts and flooding, affect water resources and communities.
“It really is supposed to be what is sometimes called a one-water approach to a very large and complicated interconnected system.”
This story first appeared on Folio. Read the original here.