National Water Quality

Indicator for Canada

Rob Kent
National Water Quality Monitoring Office
National Water Research Institute
Environment Canada

UN International Work Session on Water Statistics

Vienna, Austria
June 20-22, 2005

Environment Environnement
Canada Canada
 Outline:
• Background, context
• Data generation - monitoring
• Canadian Water Quality Index
and Reporting out
• Benefits and challenges
• Conclusions

Environment Environnement
Canada Canada
Background
 Consistent a top priority for Canadians
 Increased public concern and decreased
confidence in water safety
 External criticism of current status
 Commitment to better inform Canadians
on national water quality
 Respond to Canadian values on water:
drinkable, swimmable, fishable, available

Environment Environnement
Canada Canada
A modern integrated approach
…moving beyond “taking the sample”

Functional Elements:
1. Program Design - objectives
2. Methods development, Lab support
3. Research support
4. Data management
5. Interpretive tools/guidance
6. Reporting, indicators and information systems
7. Partnerships / Outreach
8. National co-ordination

Environment Environnement
Canada Canada
Water Quantity Monitoring

Environment Environnement
Canada Canada
Water Quality Monitoring
National Roundtable on the Environment and Economy
Environment and Sustainable Development Indicators

• Understandable indicators to
track whether Canada's current
economic activities threaten
the way of life for future
generations
• Track natural assets -
including the ecosystem
services that are crucial to
sustaining the economy in the
long term
• Water Quality: Canadian WQI as
the Freshwater Quality
Indicator

Environment Environnement
Canada Canada
 The CWQI
and
Reporting Out

Environment Environnement
Canada Canada
Environment Environnement
Canada Canada
National Water Quality Indicator Initiative

Vision: Canadians will recognize and use the

WQ Indicator as a trusted source of
information on national water quality

Sustainability of major water uses:

1.Source water
Rob Kent, Janinefor drinking
Murray, Don Andersen
2.Water for and
recreation
Chris Lochner
3.Water forQuality
Water agriculture (livestock,
Monitoring Branch irrigation)
4.Water for aquatic
National life Institute
Water Research
5.Water for industrial uses
Joint CWRA - Government of Canada Workshop:
Building Relationships for Integrated Water Resource
Management
Ottawa, February 6, 2004
Environment Environnement
Canada Canada
 National Water Quality Indicator Framework
Natural Environment
Water Quality and Aquatic Ecosystems
a. Protected areas (e.g., National Parks)
b. Areas impacted by human activity

Human Health
Water
Rob Kent, Quality
Janine and Don
Murray, Human Exposure
Andersen
and Chris
a. Consumption Lochner
- Source waters for drinking
b. Recreation - beach closures, aesthetics
Water Quality Monitoring Branch
National Water Research Institute
Competitiveness
Water Use and Availability
Joint CWRA - Government of Canada Workshop:
a. Industrial uses
Building Relationships for Integrated Water Resource
b. Agriculture uses
Management
Ottawa, February 6, 2004
Environment Environnement
Canada Canada
 Canadian
Canadian WQI
WQI
2 2 2

WQI  100 
F F F
1 2 3

1.732
 Scope (F1) - number of variables not meeting
water quality objectives
 Frequency (F2) - the number of times the
objectives are not met
 Amplitude (F3) - the extent to which objectives
exceeded.

Environment Environnement
Canada Canada
 CWQI rating system

Environment Environnement
Canada Canada
 F1 Scope

…
• Scope assesses the extent of compliance

c s
with water quality guidelines over the
i
t
time period of interest.

t
• F indicates the percentage
whose guidelines are a
i sof parameters,

t
1
not met.

e S
o r
1
M
F = Number of Failed Variables
Total Number of Variables
X 100

Environment Environnement
Canada Canada
 F2 Frequency
• Assesses the frequency with which
s…
guidelines are not met.
t i c
t
• F indicates the percentage i sof individual

t a
2

S
tests which do not meet guidelines (i.e.

e
“failed tests”)
F = Number
o r of Failed Tests
M
2
X 100
Total Number of Tests

Environment Environnement
Canada Canada
 F3 Amplitude
• Amplitude assesses the amount by which guidelines are
not met.

s…
i c
• F3 indicates the amount by which failed test values do not

t
s
meet their guidelines, and is calculated in 3 steps.

a t i
• The number of times an individual concentration exceeds a

t
guideline is termed an excursion.

S
When the test value must not exceed the guideline:

e
r
{ }
Failed Test Valuei

o
excursioni = -1
Guidelinej

M
When the test value must not fall below the guideline:

Environment
Canada
excursioni =
Environnement
Canada
{ Guidelinej
Failed Test Valuei } -1
 F3 Amplitude (cont.)
• The collective amount by which individual tests are out of

…
compliance with guidelines is calculated by summing the

s
excursions of individual tests, and dividing by the total
number of tests which failed guidelines.

t i c
s
• This variable is referred to as the normalized sum of
excursions, or nse.

a t i
t
n

S
∑ excursionsi

e
i=1

r
nse =

o
# of tests

M
F3 is then calculated to yield a value between 0 and 100

Environment
Canada
Environnement
Canada
{
F3 =
nse
0.01 nse + 0.01 }
 Typical Applications
 Selected parameters (~10) related to water
use at monitoring site
 Most appropriate ambient WQ guidelines or
objectives (site-specific)
 3yr average values from at least 9 periods; or
stratified use of CWQI over specific periods
(freshet, recession and base flow)

Environment Environnement
Canada Canada
 Benefits
and
Challenges

Environment Environnement
Canada Canada
 CWQI – What does it do?
 Communication tool – transforms complex water
quality data into understandable descriptions (e.g.,
good, fair, poor)
 Scientific rigor - maximum use of monitoring data
 Consistent use and interpretation across distributed
jurisdictions
 Applies to all beneficial water uses i.e., socio-
economically relevant
 Amenable to multiple reporting scales - local,
regional and national scales of reporting

Environment Environnement
Canada Canada
CWQI – From data to knowledge

Sample Cu Hg NO3 of
Status P freshwater
NH4 DOC Cl in Canada
quality Cd Zn
1 0.3 0.4 3.2 6.3 0.3 0.4 8.5 6.3 5.3
Number of stations
2 0.5 5.2 0.7 8.5 0.5 5.2 0.7 8.5 8.4
120
3 0.9 4.6
1004.5 4.6 0.9 4.6 4.5 4.6 6.3
4 1.2 2.3 800.3 1.3 1.2 2.3 0.3 1.3 9.4
5 4.5 5.6 608.5 2.5 4.5 5.6 8.5 2.5 1.5
6 0.8 4.8 400.6 7.4 0.8 4.8 0.6 7.4 4.3
7 0.6 3.1 200.4 9.1 0.6 3.1 0.4 9.1 7.6
8 0.8 8.7 00.1 7.5 0.8 8.7 0.1 7.4 3.5
t r l r
ll e n od ai n a o o
e G
o F r gi P
E xc M
a

Environment Environnement
Canada Canada
 Environmental Sustainability Index 2005
(World Economic Forum; Yale/Columbia University research)

Canada- Overall rank 6th out of 146 countries

Environmental Environmental Human Social and Global
Systems Stresses Vulnerability Institutional Stewardship
Capacity
4 / 146 104/ 146 2/ 146 14 / 146 133/ 146

Reducing Air Pollution

Science/Technology Participation in
Reducing Water Stress
Air Quality Basic Human Sustenance International
Reducing Ecosystem
Private Sector Collaborative Efforts
Water Quantity Stresses
Responsiveness
Reducing Waste Environment-related Greenhouse Gas
Water Quality and Consumption Natural Disaster Emissions
Environmental
Pressures Exposure
Biodiversity Governance Reducing Trans-
Reducing Population
boundary
Pressure
Terrestrial Systems Environmental Health Eco-Efficiency Environmental
Natural Resource Pressures
Management 6
22
Environment Environnement
Canada Canada
 Expressing Results Nationally
(NRTEE Report 2003)

Rob Kent, Janine Murray, Don Andersen

and Chris Lochner

Water Quality Monitoring Branch

National Water Research Institute

Joint CWRA - Government of Canada Workshop:

Building Relationships for Integrated Water Resource
Management
Ottawa, February 6, 2004
Environment Environnement
Canada Canada
 Spatial Framework

Environment Environnement
Canada Canada
 Other Challenges
 Integrating physical, chemical and
biological measurements and
processes
 Spatial scale; aggregating results
Rob Kent, Janine Murray, Don Andersen
 Weighting of andF1,2,3
Chris
1,2,3 Lochner

 NaturalWater
phenomena vs human
Quality Monitoring Branch impacts
National Water Research Institute
 Best scientific judgement
Joint CWRA - Government of Canada Workshop:
Building Relationships for Integrated Water Resource
Management
Ottawa, February 6, 2004
Environment Environnement
Canada Canada
 Conclusion
 Water quality indicator integrating all data into
socially relevant “report card” – within
distributed multijurisdictional model
 Continuous improvement
 Credibility through
Rob Kent, Janineexpert
Murray,judgement
Don Andersen
 Start at integrating water
and Chris quality and quantity
Lochner
measures into natural capital accounting
Water Quality Monitoring Branch
 Key to behavioural
National Water change,
Research strengthened
Institute
measurement capacity and enhanced resource
management performance
Joint CWRA - Government of Canada Workshop:
Building Relationships for Integrated Water Resource
Management
Ottawa, February 6, 2004
Environment Environnement
Canada Canada