Supporting creative solutions to complex water challenges

As 2024 progresses, water, or the lack thereof, is hitting the headlines. The province has announced an early start to wildfire season and launched water sharing negotiations with major water license holders. We need water for all aspects of our lives; to drink, to produce the food we eat, to make the clothes we wear, and to support the natural ecosystems around us. It powers our lives and our economies.

Tough decisions are going to have to be made – and are already being made – by governments and our communities to ensure that we have the water we need for the necessities. But managing this drought is going to be about more than just turning off our sprinklers and taking shorter showers.

Our cities, industries and utilities are going to have to find better ways of managing, using and reusing the water available to us. This is all part of the work Alberta Innovates does.

Water challenges are complex and they require new ways of looking at problems to solve them. They require things like better understanding where our water comes from within our cities and our province as a whole, planning for how we can manage drought across communities and levels of government, using technology like AI to find efficiencies in our systems, and finding ways to have nature do some of the hard work for us.

These are just some of the projects underway here at Alberta Innovates. While these projects represent the work being supported through our Water Innovation Program grants, we do more than just fund great ideas and great technology. We have established a support network that also includes business advice, analytical capacity, testing facilities and more. If we can’t help, we usually know who can.

This article is part of Making Waves, an annual Alberta Innovates publication highlighting water solutions we support. You can read more stories from this issue below.