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NSERC’s HydroNet: consolidating five years of research designed to develop knowledge and tools about the effects of hydroelectric facilities on aquatic ecosystems

National Peer Review - National Capital Region

April 15-17, 2015
Ottawa, Ontario

Co-Chairpersons: Dr. Karen Smokorowski and Keith Clarke

Context

The Natural Sciences and engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) HydroNet  is a national research network whose overall mission is to provide government and industry with the knowledge and tools that will contribute to the sustainable development of hydropower in Canada (please see the NSERC HydroNet Network's web site for additional information). HydroNet recently completed its final year of a 5-year mandate (2009-2014). The research activities of HydroNet were developed based on consultations with numerous hydropower companies and government agencies to identify what research activities would provide the most value to these organisations. At the time of HydroNet’s development, it became clear that the implementation of the principle of “not net loss of the productive capacity of fish habitats”, which was central to the previous Habitat Management Policy of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), was hampered by the difficulty of estimating and predicting the productive capacity of fish habitats (PCFH). As such, the development of new knowledge and tools to support the implementation of the principle of “no net loss” formed the central axis of the research mission, and the production of metrics of PCFH was highlighted as the main focus. With the amendments to the Fisheries Act (FA) being introduced in June 2012, the focus of the regulatory process moved from PCFH to fisheries productivity, but the principle of ‘balancing losses and gains’ has been maintained. The metrics of PCFH being developed within HydroNet were always biologically focussed, and therefore remain highly applicable to implementing the Fisheries Protection Provisions (FPP) of the new FA.  

HydroNet undertook and completed 21 projects under a Strategic Network Grant focussing on PCFH of riverine environments below hydropower dams (supported by Fisheries and Oceans Canada), and 2 projects under complementary Collaborative Research and Development Grants that included:

  1. Predicting the Entrainment Risk of Fish in Hydropower Reservoirs with BC Hydro; and,
  2. Mesoscale Modeling of the Productive Capacity of Fish Habitats in Reservoirs with Manitoba Hydro.

With the substantial financial, intellectual and managerial contributions by DFO and industry towards achieving the objectives of NSERC’s HydroNet, it is important that the new knowledge and tools gained about the effects of hydroelectric facilities on aquatic ecosystem be disseminated in a concise and transparent manner. The Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat process provides an ideal environment to consolidate and peer review the knowledge gained from HydroNet’s substantial research efforts. The intention is to use this science advice to help achieve HydroNet’s general objective: to develop science-based practical solutions that will provide government and industry resource managers with new tools to assess, mitigate, and minimise potential impacts on aquatic ecosystems.

Objectives

To consolidate and integrate knowledge and tools gained from 5 years of HydroNet Research activities under 5 themes:

  1. Physical and chemical drivers (flow, nutrients and temperature) of fisheries productivity across rivers of varying hydrological regimes: lessons learned from NSERC’s HydroNet 2010-2015. 
  2. Biological drivers of fisheries productivity across rivers of varying hydrological regimes: lessons learned from NSERC’s HydroNet 2010-2015.
  3. Mesoscale modeling of fisheries productivity in a reservoir: lessons learned from NSERC’s HydroNet 2010-2015.
  4. Downstream entrainment risk and upstream fish passage at dams: lessons learned from NSERC’s HydroNet 2010-15.
  5. Remote sensing of riverine geomorphology as a tool for the assessment of riverine physical habitat.  

Expected Publications

Participation

Notice

Participation to CSAS peer review meetings is by invitation only.

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