Through the Federal-Provincial Water Quantity Survey Agreements, the Water Survey Program in Atlantic Canada is undertaken on a cost-shared basis between the four Atlantic Provinces and the Federal Government. The Federal Government is involved in the national water inventory, inter-provincial and international monitoring, and the control of cross boundary flow. The provinces are involved in flood plain controls, ground water resources, and municipal water supplies. Collected data is used in flow forecasting, the design of culverts, bridges and dams, hydroelectric production, irrigation operations, human consumption and habitat health.

Contacts for hydrometric services

Water Survey of Canada

National Water Data Archive

Canadian Climate And Water Information And Data Site

World Meteorological Organization (WMO) - Hydrology and Water Resources Programme (HWRP)

A sit down cable car is used by hydrometric technologists to obtain high water discharge measurements when no bridge is available and it is too deep to wade in the stream.

A staff member taking a wading discharge measurement. The tag line is stretched out across the river to obtain an overall width and also to indicate the locations of 20 or more stations across that river where depth and velocity readings will be taken.

When done, the average depth, average velocity and total width of the river will be known and the flow of the stream can be calculated.

A rustic gauge house on the Northeast Margaree River at Margaree Valley. This gauge house contains a datalogger that collects water level, precipitation, temperature and humidity data hourly which is then transmitted by GOES Satellite to the Environmental Monitoring office in Dartmouth, NS.

Water level data has been continuously recorded here (manually and automatically) since June 1916. This gauge house was built in the 1960s. Prior to that, water levels were obtained by members of the Ingraham family who acted as gauge readers.

Important Notices