Water Resources

The water resources cluster group will be asked to consider the stock aspect of water, its quality, and its ecosystem health aspects. The scope of its mandate includes both surface freshwater and groundwater. Indicators may be determined using Statistics Canada's work on water balance, which provides a natural resource account and will likely be completed before the submission of the final ESDI Initiative report. This account includes quantities of surface water, precipitation, and stream flows.
Specifically, the group will be asked to:

• Determine a national indicator of water quality for human health,
• Determine indicators of freshwater ecosystem health, possibly including indicators related to biological diversity or water diversion,
• Examine the feasibility of determining stock estimates and indicators of commercially exploited freshwater species.
• Develop a stock estimate for surface and groundwater and determine what information will be needed to determine if the stock is being maintained/used in a sustainable fashion,
• Examine the feasibility of population-weighted indicators for water quantity and quality, related to demand for and availability of water. This could be based on how much water is needed to sustain current and future human activity and the health of aquatic ecosystems. The group will also consider the spatial and population aspects of water demand and availability,
• Determine indicators of inputs of pollutants (e.g. priority toxic substances) in terms of the demand created for ecosystem services (waste disposal and assimilation).

The group will be asked to identify links between the indicators it develops, particularly for water quality, and those under consideration by the group on Human Capital.

The group will be asked to recommend no more than three indicators, and to designate one preferred indicator for each sub-domain of water quantity and for water quality to the Steering Committee.