This grant from Alberta Innovates will support Professor David Percy's research initiative which is designed to evaluate existing legal instruments to promote integrated water management decision-making.
Ongoing climate variability with frequent droughts and occasional floods, combined with population growth and the water requirements of expanding economic development are challenging the management of water supplies in Alberta. Water scarcity is already a major issue in the South Saskatchewan River Basin. The uncertainty related to future changes in climate and the present closing of major portions of the South Saskatchewan River Basin to new allocations under the Water Act requires a detailed analysis of the ability of the current legislative and regulatory frameworks to continue to meet current needs and to adapt to meet future needs.
The research project consists of two distinct sections.
Research Theme # 1: Water Allocation Transfer Systems
In the first section the grant will support Professor Percy's graduate student Greg Lane, who is responsible for research on the methods used by the governments of the Western provinces to transfer water allocations from existing users to new users. Those methods include reallocation based on a preferred hierarchy of water uses (Manitoba), discretionary decisions by government officials (Saskatchewan), market transfers (Alberta) and ad hoc local decision making (British Columbia). This section will provide a comparative assessment of each approach and recommendations for future reforms in Alberta.
Professor David Percy will be conducting the research on the second component:
Research Theme # 2: The Doctrine of Prior Allocation and Water Management in Alberta
The principle of prior allocation lies at the heart of Alberta water law. One of the fundamental pillars of prior allocation, commonly known as first in time, first in right, states that during times of shortage water will be allocated according to strictly temporal priorities so that a senior licensee is entitled to receive all of its allocated water before a junior licensee can divert any water. In recent years, commentators have begun to challenge the principle of prior allocation and to advocate its repeal. This section of the Project will discuss the theoretical bases for those criticisms and the extent to which the principle of prior allocation interferes with rational water management. It will culminate in testing the limits of the principle of prior allocation by examining the extent to which it can accommodate a new approach to water management suggested in the Bow River Project (2012), which addresses conflicts in water use in Alberta's most intensively used and controversial river basin.
Additional Information:
The University of Alberta's strength in water research was acknowledged today by the provincial government with funding for nine new research projects: http://news.ualberta.ca/newsarticles/2013/april