The City of Calgary and surrounding areas is currently the fastest growing population centre in Canada. Currently the greater Calgary area communities rely solely on water supplied by the Elbow and Bow Rivers. However, current climate change models predict river discharge in the future will drop due to decreased precipitation as well as decreased glacial coverage in the headwaters of the basin, thus prompting examination of ground water as a potential alternative. The study will analyze historic climate records in order to extract the anthropogenic signal related to growth of the city from the natural signal related to global climate change, interpret existing groundwater monitoring databases, and obtain estimates of groundwater levels under climate change scenarios.

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Steve Grasby