Vision -------- The dynamic nature of Water Science research—in which approaches to observation, modelling, and prediction of Earth systems are continuously evolving—shapes our present data and re-shapes our legacy data collected over many years through reanalysis. Our interactions with well-managed data--past and present--leads us to new discoveries, new made-to-order solutions, and a sustainable process of iterative refinement of knowledge and research questions. This process inevitably results in future data which will become tomorrow’s important legacy. Global Water Futures (GWF) is thus steadfastly committed to data stewardship and, to this end, has created this template-based form of data catalogue, GWFNet, able to incorporate legacy information and future information (of a to-be-determined form) as easily as it handles information from the present day. The Vision for GWFNet is to enable a variety of information seekers--from the general public to highly specialized scientists--to easily zero in on trails of information and obtain publications, data sets, near-real-time hydrometeorological data sources, along with other related information that delivers context to the results associated with their searches (including basins, observatories, research sites, stations, model inventories, software, principal investigators, projects, and much more). GWFNet has been spawned as an output of Global Water Futures, but its mission is to persistently bridge and synthesize information from Canadian programs on Water Science from the past ( www.gwfnet.net/Metadata/Record/Legacy%20Projects ): - MAGS: The Mackenzie Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX), - DRI: Drought Research Initiative, - IP3: Improving Processes and Parameterization for Prediction in Cold Regions Hydrology, - CCRN: Changing Cold Regions Network, and - INARCH: The International Network for Alpine Research Catchment Hydrology); present: - GWF: Global Water Futures ( www.gwf.usask.ca ); and future: - Program (to be determined). Today’s legacy is tomorrow’s future! About -------- GWFNet is a catalogue of linked, template-based information records on Water Science associated with the Global Water Futures program, other important foundational programs that led to Global Water Futures, and to follow-on programs that will be inspired by Global Water Futures. GWFNet is, and always will be, under active development. Its evolution is gradual, continuous, and governed (and strongly motivated) by user satisfaction and whatever enhancements are necessary for the representation of information sought after by the programs it serves. GWFNet is designed to endure long after Global Water Futures and to serve as an important information resource in follow-on Water Science programs inspired by Global Water Futures. Video -------- www.gwfnet.net/fileserver/T-2021-12-12-Z1QwFfKmMC0uRRuaZ1XEoDlA/GWFNet_Part_A_Introduction.mp4

to develop sustainable water management practices through applied holistic assessments of environmental and human wellness. Communities include - the Six Nations of the Grand River, ON, and - Lubicon Cree Nation of Little Buffalo, AB Indigenous populations in Canada are particularly vulnerable to climate change and water security issues. First Nations communities’ water supplies are in crisis over lack of access to water quality and quantity, water technology (real time data and clear standards), and skilled management systems. Inadequate infrastructure increases the health burden in these communities. Water crisis is widely experienced in Indigenous communities due to the “…ongoing struggle to have Indigenous voices heard in the decision-making processes that affect their lives, lands, and waters” (McGregor, 2012). Research, capacity building and support are needed for a range of water-related topics of governance, health and capacity development, including development of Indigenous sustainability. Following extensive engagement and discussions, our partner communities in Ontario and Alberta have identified three primary areas of interest: (1) bridging traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and western science (WS) in the area of accredited water management training and bilingual texts/resources to build communities’ capacity to manage future environmental challenges [training], (2) building youth mental health resilience related to water security [wellness], and (3) training youth/assisting community in water governance, rights, responses inclusive of Indigenous laws [governance]. Our project is set to address these needs, via a co-creation team consisting of leading experts in TEK and WS in all of the three components. The three teams (TEK research/training, wellness, and governance) focus on the issues of addressing stewardship over time; crafting bilingual, relevant resources; and fostering resilience. The overarching aim of this project is to develop an enduring legacy of Indigenous knowledge/traditional ecological knowledge harmonization with western science through co-creation of sustainable water management pathways for community to continue applied holistic assessments of environmental and human wellness. The end users of this project will include primarily Six Nations community, youth, high school, college and university teachers, and researchers while maintaining links to Lubicon Cree and Western stakeholders. The researchers from community, secondary immersion school and undergraduate students will be formally accredited by partners from McMaster, Mohawk College; and potentially more educational institutions expressed enthusiasm and willingness to create an integrated program of delivery of mixed methods. There have been preliminary agreements to accredit existing community researchers and develop a pathway for secondary students to pursue post-secondary environmental and water management programs integrating experiential learning.

http://www.sixnations.ca http://www.lubiconlakeband.ca/about https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/i5-martinHill.php Related Websites: https://www.ohneganos.com https://indigenous.mcmaster.ca/news/new-indigenous-student-led-youtube-series-ohneganos-lets-talk-water Video https://youtu.be/xdVrayhAtRI New Indigenous Student-led Youtube Series: Ohneganos Let's Talk Water: https://indigenous.mcmaster.ca/news/new-indigenous-student-led-youtube-series-ohneganos-lets-talk-water/@@images/image

Abandoned mines abound in the NWT with dates of operation varying from 1930s to 2000s and lifespans from less than 1 year to 50 years. Most are located in the boreal forest on the Canadian Shield in the zone of discontinuous permafrost. The legacy of metal pollution from mining extends beyond the immediate mining sites and across the NWT via emissions to the atmosphere and subsequent deposition. However, its extent is poorly known. The fate and toxicity of these metals from mining activities depends strongly on their transport via dissolved organic matter (DOM). DOM is a complex array of molecules that play an influential role in dictating surface water quality. It is predicted that climate warming, especially in subarctic regions where substantial organic matter has accumulated over time, will accelerate both rates of organic matter decomposition and consequently the mass and chemistry of DOM entering freshwater systems during the next few decades. These changes have important implications for surface water quality with respect to long-term ecosystem health and human consumption of drinking water. Metals at levels comparable to guidelines for aquatic ecosystem health and drinking water consumption can result from enhanced metal mobility due to mining activities. Critically important to metal mobility is the production of elevated and potentially chemically altered DOM with wetlands, soils, streams, and lakes that have been a repository for elevated metal concentrations via atmospheric or direct deposition. Increased mobility of metals from anthropogenic sources, as well as those that are naturally occurring, in catchments and lakes in NWT as a consequence of ongoing climate warming has the potential to significantly expand the anthropogenic impacts of mining. To Wit: This project will trace the transport and behaviour of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and metals through terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in headwater catchments along a 200 km airshed transect between Giant Mine and Whati, an area of concentrated mining activity. Six Work Plans include: 1) terrestrial stores of historical metal deposition and transport to aquatic ecosystems, 2) DOM quantity and quality, metal binding, and toxicology, 3) modelling of DOM quantity and quality in cold regions, 4) metal depositional history, pathways, and processes in lake sediments, 5) paleo-ecotoxicology and ecosystem structure, and 6) climate change effects including permafrost thaw. Findings will inform improved decision-making by multiple stakeholders in the NWT, including Indigenous peoples, about both legacy of mining activities and implications of new mining developments on water quality in a changing environment.

https://specialprojects.wlu.ca/samms https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/p1-samms.php

Permafrost has a profound influence over physical and biological processes shaping circumpolar environments. Models project widespread thawing of near-surface permafrost over the coming century, which will eradicate thin sporadic permafrost at its southern extent and shift the discontinuous zone northward. Anthropogenic climate change has intensified thermokarst processes such that ice-rich permafrost regions are being modified at increasingly rapid rates. Understanding how thaw-driven landscape change will manifest across a diverse range of biophysical environments, and anticipating the ecosystem, biogeochemical, carbon, and societal consequences remains a major knowledge gap in Arctic change science. The Thermokarst Collective (TKC) is a northern-driven mapping project initiated by the Northwest Territories Geological Survey to develop a comprehensive mapping inventory of remote-sensed thermokarst features across the entirety of the NWT. Hydrological, mass wasting, and periglacial thermokarst features are mapped within 7.5 x 7.5 km grid cells using Sentinel 10 m resolution imagery. In addition, a systematic aerial inventory and characterization of thaw-sensitive permafrost terrain was undertaken in summers of 2020 and 2021. During this time the project has assessed approximately 28,000 km of flight lines and compiled about 8,000 permafrost landform observations and thermokarst terrain attributes. These data are complemented with over 20,000 georeferenced oblique photographs that are being organized in a geospatial database. Here we present a some comparisons between TKC generated feature data with mapped or modelled features from published research examining particular regions of the NWT. The spatial data from this project show significant departures from modelled terrain sensitivity products highlighting the utility of broadscale empirical datasets. This mapping inventory characterizes over 25 variables describing thermokarst and periglacial landforms. We illustrate the depth of the datasets through exploring within and between regional variation in the suite of landforms that describe permafrost sensitivity. These analyses highlight that variation in geological and paleoenvironmental legacy and climate drivers combine to yield a diverse array of thermokarst and periglacial landform assemblages indicating the terrain consequences of permafrost thaw will vary in complex ways across the northern landscape. The novel and holistic approach to characterizing permafrost terrain taken in this project yields significant potential for exploring variation in terrain consequences of permafrost thaw, and provides a geological basis for re-framing how we think about what permafrost thaw will mean to the landscapes, ecosystems and communities of the north.

Lake Erie is a source of drinking water, recreation, and commercial opportunity in the U.S and Canada, making the protection of its water quality essential. In the past decades, Lake Erie's ecosystems have been adversely impacted by recurring toxic algal blooms. These algal blooms are attributed to nitrogen (N) and phosphorus pollution from agricultural activities. Despite recent efforts to reduce N application in the Lake Erie basin, high levels of N concentration persist in surface and groundwater systems. One of the reasons for this apparent stasis in N concentrations is legacy stores of N in landscapes that contribute to lag times in water quality response, even after inputs have ceased. Legacy N is stored in the soil and slow-moving groundwater and makes up a large portion of current N contamination. Quantifying these available legacy N stores is essential for creating nutrient reduction targets. My project aims to quantify N legacies across the entire Lake Erie basin to predict time lags in water quality improvements. To do this, we use a process-based modelling framework, ELEMeNT, to quantify legacy N stores and watershed-scale N dynamics over the past century in multiple sub-watersheds across the basin. Our model results will inform nutrient management practices across the Lake Erie basin by explicitly incorporating legacy dynamics. These proposed management strategies will, ideally, lead to improved water quality across the Lake Erie basin.

Discussion on the importance of archiving all forms of new and legacy information resources from experts on knowledge mobilization (KM)

Questions to Monica Morrison, KM Specialist, Global Water Futures, University of Saskatchewan • Introduction I am probably what is referred to as a boundary crosser in that I have made my way from studying anthropology and folk narrative to library science and finally science and technology studies, stints in government information management, and pinch hitting as a writer, trainer, and communicator in consulting roles. My journey took me to Africa where I spent 30 years trying to deliver information in fascinating but challenging, resource-poor environments. Along the way I teamed up with an archivist who taught me how important the preservation of legacy knowledge through records management was to the reduction of fear and information overload in managing organisations. So, without formal archival training, I became an advocate for all forms of legacy information resources, and for encouraging managers to avoid re-inventing the wheel by understanding what had gone before. • What is your role? As Knowledge Mobilization Specialist for GWF, my overall goal is to find ways that the research produced find its way into use or re-use, both within and outside of academia. Information becomes a legacy resource very quickly, especially in the context of funded project work. Because of this, my work dovetails with that of project managers and data managers at project, programme, and university levels, since GWF has its home at the University of Saskatchewan and includes partnerships with other universities. That is many independent organizations, each with its own set of practices and priorities when it comes to legacy information resources. I seek out support and partnerships with the data managers, librarians, records managers, and archivists in these institutions to try to ensure that these knowledge assets do not disappear and are made available to future researchers. One of the ways we have done this for GWF is to encourage the deposit of what might be considered ephemeral content – conference posters, workshop presentations, and project videos for example – in institutional repositories. This sometime requires awareness raising as people think that because they have posted a resource on their web site, it will be available as long as is needed. According to a study by Brewster Kahle, the founder of the Internet Archive, the average lifespan of a web page is about 100 days. The challenge, of course is to get people willing to carry out what they consider as an administrative task, including the application of rule-based metadata, to put materials into these repositories so they get a persistent identifier. • Why is it important for knowledge mobilizers to pay attention to issues around archiving? Studies have shown that the path to research impact on society is long and convoluted – anywhere from three to 30 years. As KM managers, we need to take the long view. Yes we should communicate in popular sources as soon as possible after research findings are released (better still along the way as a project progresses), and encourage the kind of interactions between producers of information and potential users that build understanding and relationships, but communications and KM specialists are often recruited as temporary staff attached to a time-limited project. They probably won’t be around to continue to facilitate project information use once funding has ceased, and awareness of and access to these resources can decline quickly. Using archives and archival approaches can be one solution to this problem. It is true that the information that is codified in the form of documents and other records is only one kind of knowledge asset, but providing access to this builds the knowledge and capacity of the human beings involved. • How do you approach archiving (eg what gets archived, where/ how, what is the process)? This is a tough question and the only good answer is to get organized. Put standard procedures in place at the beginning of work programmes and give them priority. That means getting senior managers on-board to make sure enough resources – both human and financial – are available to get the job done. Make sure it is somebody’s job to shepherd and preserve the resources: as useful as computer systems are, we still need human beings to make sure they are doing the job that is needed. Records managers have something called retention schedules, which, informed by programme managers, describe the type of information being handled, its purpose and value, and an evaluation of the length of time needed to retain it for the purposes of the organization. This helps a lot. But sometimes information resources have value beyond the needs of the creator or originating organization. That is when you call in professional archivists who can judge whether these should be preserved for broader future research. An example from our Global Water Futures programme would be the original concept note for the formation of a Canada Water Agency presented by GWF researchers to the Canadian Prime Minister in August 2014. You may be aware that the Agency has now, nine years later, been legislated into existence. • What would you suggest for knowledge mobilizers who want their work to be accessible in the future? For your own work, write it up. Document your thought processes, and all the successes and failures (failures most important). Even if you don’t do this in the form of a peer- reviewed article, share this learning with other human beings who are wrestling with similar problems because your experience will live on in their invisible minds and visible practice. And because you have written it up and placed it in a long-term repository, people will be able to produce evidence for the way they are thinking and practicing. • What are challenges or barriers to archiving, from your perspective? Mainly, mindsets. If people have not been trained or habituated in thinking about the value of legacy information, they tend to think that stewardship practices are boring or an administrative pain. They just want to feel creative, and that may well mean re-inventing wheels. And these days, they tend to think that computer systems are looking after all the boring processes that are necessary to ensure longevity and access to legacy materials. Researchers are fortunate because building on previous research (Ref Google’s Stand on the shoulders of giants motto) has been built into the standard operating procedures of academia, and the information infrastructure is there to support this. But outside of academia, and when it comes to the records and grey literature that sit on shelves and in drawers of professors’ offices, there is still a lot to be done by knowledge mobilizers.

The potential of high severity wildfires to increase global terrestrial carbon emissions and exacerbate future climatic warming is of international concern. Nowhere is this more prevalent than within high latitude regions where peatlands have, over millennia, accumulated legacy carbon stocks comparable to all human CO2 emissions since the beginning of the industrial revolution. Drying increases rates of peat decomposition and associated atmospheric and aquatic carbon emissions. The degree to which severe wildfires enhance drying under future climates and induce instability in peatland ecological communities and carbon stocks is unknown. Here we show that high burn severities increased post-fire evapotranspiration by 410% within a feather moss peatland by burning through the protective capping layer that restricts evaporative drying in response to low severity burns. High burn severities projected under future climates will therefore leave peatlands that dominate dry sub-humid regions across the boreal, on the edge of their climatic envelopes, more vulnerable to intense post-fire drying, inducing high rates of carbon loss to the atmosphere that amplify the direct combustion emissions.

The goal of this project is to engage and educate community members on local groundwater processes and sustainable development of water resources. The lessons learned in Rocky View County (RVC) will be used to create a legacy for not only RVC, but additional municipalities in Alberta and elsewhere. The goal is also to create a methodology that encourages municipalities throughout Alberta and Canada to adopt a similar program - leading to a comprehensive groundwater data set. Please visit http://groundwaterconnections.weebly.com/ for more information.