Researchers at Concordia have developed a new method of measuring the amount of usable water stored in snowpacks.
Researchers at Concordia have developed a new method of measuring the amount of usable water stored in snowpacks. The comprehensive technique, known as snow water availability (SWA), uses satellite data and climate reanalysis techniques to calculate snow depth, snow density and snow cover across a wide swath of Canada and Alaska.
“SWA quantifies how much water is available where snowpack exists. Knowing where the snowpack is located is critically important because where its water ultimately ends up after melting depends on where the snowpack was initially located,” says the study’s corresponding author Ali Nazemi, an associate professor in the Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science.
Data gathered using this methodology shows that usable snow water has declined sharply in areas of the Canadian Rockies, where major river headwaters originate. These areas make up only three per cent of the country, but when combined with smaller declines elsewhere, the changes affect a quarter of Canada’s land mass and 86 per cent of the population. Nazemi warns that the consequences touch agriculture, hydropower, shipping, recreation and Indigenous communities.
Read More at: Concordia University
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