International Watersheds Initiative Projects

The International Joint Commission’s boards in watersheds along the US-Canada border carry out International Watersheds Initiative (IWI) projects to promote communication, conduct scientific studies and contribute to the resolution of watershed issues. Projects are developed by a board and reviewed by Commission staff. All projects are consistent with the board’s mandate and meet the objectives of the IWI. Learn more about the International Watersheds Initiative.

Displaying 51 - 97 of 97.

Year
2017
Project Description
The Canadian Precipitation Analysis (CaPA) is an operational near real-time gridded precipitation product from Environment Canada available since April 2011 for North America. CaPA has generated a lot of enthusiasm in the Great Lakes area, due to its unique capability of capturing some of the...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2017
Project Description
The United States and Canada independently developed their own suite of hydrographic datasets using different standards and approaches. Containing mapped rivers, lakes, and watershed boundaries, these national datasets stopped at the international border and often did not line up, leaving an area of...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2017
Project Description
The United States and Canada independently developed their own suite of hydrographic datasets using different standards and approaches. Containing mapped rivers, lakes, and watershed boundaries, these national datasets stopped at the international border and often did not line up, leaving an area of...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2017
Project Description
Estimates of consumptive use and evaporative losses are an important component of the computation of the natural flow of the Milk River and apportionment of Milk River water between the U.S. and Canada.
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2017
Project Description
This project is a continuation of ongoing GLAM efforts to collect data to support model validation and will result in detailed vegetation community data referenced to elevation and seasonal water levels in 16 Lake Ontario coastal wetlands. The collected data will augment existing datasets from...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2017
Project Description
This project will develop water quality and aquatic ecosystem health Objectives and Alert Levels for the Rainy-Lake of the Woods Basin. Existing Objectives are outdated and it is not known if the Alert Level parameters are those that Rainy-Lake of the Woods Watershed Board (the Board) would deem...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2017
Project Description
Monuments indicating the historic peak lake level of Osoyoos Lake documented in 1894, 1972, 1974, and 1997 by the U.S. Geological Survey will be constructed at public parks on both sides of the border in Osoyoos, British Columbia and Oroville, Washington. These prominently displayed historic peak...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2017
Project Description
This is for the first phase of a project to use Project WET* tools to bring news and activities of the International Rainy Lake of the Woods Watershed to schools in the basin. In this phase, the Board will develop a Kindergarten to Grade 12 cross reference guide, matching Minnesota state curriculum...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2017
Project Description
A River Film, produced by Ascent Films, Inc. and the Washington State Department of Ecology in coordination with the IOLBC was finalized in August 2017 and premiered at the IOLBC annual public meeting in Osoyoos, B.C., and at the IJC semi-annual meeting in Ottawa, ON in October 2017. The first...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2017
Project Description
During both the International Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Study (LOSLRS) and the International Upper Great Lakes Study (IUGLS), coastal wetland performance indicators were developed and used to help assess how changes in water level management strategies may impact wetland vegetation response.
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2017
Project Description
Lake Superior regulation affects levels and flows in the lower St. Marys River. Unnatural changes in outflow can occur at the beginning of each month and the Board of Control has been working on methods to quantify impacts associated with regulation to better accommodate environmental objectives.
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2017
Project Description
High water levels throughout the Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River system in 2017 impacted several shoreline communities, stakeholders and businesses including recreational boating marinas and yacht clubs. Media reports highlighted several marinas and yacht clubs that were flooded and had their...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2017
Project Description
In 2017, high Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River water levels caused problems for municipal water and wastewater operators as well as some industrial facilities throughout the system. Challenges included poor drainage through municipal wastewater infrastructure in low lying areas close to the...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2017
Project Description
The board intends to incorporate recently developed alewife population models into a user friendly, plain language tool depicting the theoretical outcomes of: i) changes in fish passage and ii) commercial harvest to alewife runs in the St. Croix River. The end-product will be a graphic web-based...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2017
Project Description
A basin-wide study using 10-25 years of data from 37 sites is being performed to develop an up-to-date water quality trend analysis for a variety of contaminants, such as nutrients, sulfate and chloride. This analysis uses the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) software QWTrend to effectively estimate...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2016
Project Description
Common reed (Phragmites australis) is an exotic invasive plant that has colonized extensive portions of Great Lakes coastal wetlands and shorelines and is less prominent in Lake Ontario – with some speculation this may be related to water-level regulation. This study will provide insights into the...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2016
Project Description
SPARROW (SPAtially Referenced Regression On Watershed attributes) is a watershed model that relates patterns in water quality to human activities and natural processes. Using existing monitoring data, SPARROW analyses the water quality of streams, rivers, and lakes in relation to the location and...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2016
Project Description
Anadromous fish have been counted at the research trap at the Milltown dam fishway since 1981. This project forms the basis for measuring the progress of current international efforts to restore sea-run alewife, blueback herring, and American shad to the St. Croix River watershed. It also plays an...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2016
Project Description
The unique physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the St. Marys River, which is the outlet of Lake Superior connected to Lake Michigan-Huron downstream, provide for a rich and diverse environment that is a vitally important aquatic resource in the upper Great Lakes system. This project...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2016
Project Description
In line with the final goal established in 2015 of generating a 30-year, 15-km, daily hindcast of precipitation, evaporation and runoff for all Canada/U.S. transboundary watersheds, this project focuses on the production of a 5-year hindcast of the Canadian Precipitation Analysis system (CaPA), the...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2016
Project Description
The United States and Canada independently developed their own suite of hydrographic datasets using different standards and approaches. Containing mapped rivers, lakes, and watershed boundaries, these national datasets stopped at the international border and often did not line up, leaving an area of...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2016
Project Description
Estimates of consumptive use and evaporative losses are an important component of the computation of the natural flow of the Milk River and apportionment of Milk River water between the U.S. and Canada.
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2016
Project Description
This project aims to provide the International Joint Commission (IJC) with technical recommendations on user-friendly, automated, online interactive visualization tools for communicating dynamic data and other scientific information to IJC’s boards, stakeholders and the public. Having produced...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2016
Project Description
This project is a hydroacoustic telemetry study that is being conducted in the Red River to study movements and habitat use of a number of fish species including Lake Sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens), Bigmouth Buffalo (Ictiobus cyprinellus), Channel Catfish (Ictalurus punctatus), Walleye (Sander...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2015
Project Description
In light of a planned 3-year long gate refurbishment project at the Fort Frances dam on the Rainy River, an existing 2-D hydrodynamic model will be updated with recent measured water level data in order to simulate the conveyance losses due to gate closures during refurbishment. In addition to this...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2015
Project Description
The Sipayik Environmental Department (SED) of the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point, Maine, in parallel with the yearly fish counts, conducted this multi-year study to determine the effectiveness of fish passages in the watershed in 2016 and 2017. Efficient fish passage is imperative for...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2015
Project Description
The purpose of this project is to develop a new historical record of monthly runoff, over-lake evaporation, over-lake precipitation, and connecting channel flows for each of the Great Lakes using a novel statistical model that (through an explicit acknowledgment of bias and uncertainty) reconciles...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2015
Project Description
The wetlands meadow marsh performance indicator has been a critical component of the evaluation of water level regulation plan options for the Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River system and it is important to validate and improve the modelling approach. This project aims to produce a modelling tool that...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2015
Project Description
Flow measurements at the Compensating Works at the head of the St. Marys Rapids will be conducted throughout the summer and fall of 2015 in order to establish and verify relationships used to determine flow through the St. Marys Rapids at multiple partially open gate settings. The International Lake...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2015
Project Description
Anadromous fish have been counted at the research trap at the Milltown dam fishway since 1981. This project forms the basis for measuring the progress of current international efforts to restore sea-run alewife, blueback herring, and American shad to the St. Croix River watershed. It also plays an...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2015
Project Description
StreamStats, developed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), is a Web-based Geographic Information System (GIS). It provides users with access to an assortment of analytical tools useful for water-resources planning and management, along with engineering applications. StreamStats makes the process...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2015
Project Description
The Canadian Precipitation Analysis (CaPA) is an operational near real-time gridded precipitation product from Environment Canada available since April 2011 for North America. CaPA has generated a lot of enthusiasm in the Great Lakes area, due to its unique capability of capturing some of the...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2015
Project Description
Following the 1997 Red River flood, work was undertaken to increase the flood resiliency of the basin. The International Joint Commission’s (IJC) 2000 report, “Living with the Red”, identified a number of feasible flood mitigation measures. In 2009, IWI funding was provided to determine the status...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2015
Project Description
The United States and Canada independently developed their own suite of hydrographic datasets using different standards and approaches. Containing mapped rivers, lakes, and watershed boundaries, these national datasets stopped at the international border and often did not line up, leaving an area of...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2015
Project Description
SPARROW (SPAtially Referenced Regression On Watershed attributes) is a watershed model that relates patterns in water quality to human activities and natural processes. Using existing monitoring data, SPARROW analyses the water quality of streams, rivers, and lakes in relation to the location and...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2015
Project Description
SPARROW (SPAtially Referenced Regression On Watershed attributes) is a watershed model that relates patterns in water quality to human activities and natural processes. Using existing monitoring data, SPARROW analyses the water quality of streams, rivers, and lakes in relation to the location and...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2015
Project Description
The United States and Canada independently developed their own suite of hydrographic datasets using different standards and approaches. Containing mapped rivers, lakes, and watershed boundaries, these national datasets stopped at the international border and often did not line up, leaving an area of...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2015
Project Description
Estimates of consumptive use and evaporative losses are an important component of the computation of the natural flow of the Milk River and apportionment of Milk River water between the U.S. and Canada.
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2015
Project Description
This project will result in detailed vegetation community aerial coverage and taxonomic data referenced to elevation and seasonal water levels in 8 Lake Ontario coastal wetlands. These data can be used for adaptive management monitoring and integrate into wetland vegetation community modelling in...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2015
Project Description
This project aims to acquire high-resolution aerial imagery in maximum-vegetation condition for sixteen Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River coastal wetlands, use GIS to map the vegetation types within these wetlands, and then assess similarities and differences in wetland extent from equivalent...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2015
Project Description
This project will result in detailed vegetation community information referenced to elevation in 16 Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River coastal wetlands on the US side. The proposed work complements planned work in Ontario wetlands and will allow the development of a lakewide, binational assessment...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2015
Project Description
The United States and Canada independently developed their own suite of hydrographic datasets using different standards and approaches. Containing mapped rivers, lakes, and watershed boundaries, these national datasets stopped at the international border and often did not line up, leaving an area of...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2015
Project Description
The International Osoyoos Lake Board of Control (IOLBC), in collaboration with water management agencies, Tribes, First Nations and communities on both sides of border presents the Osoyoos Lake Water Science Forum (OLWSF). The OLWSF provides an opportunity for residents of the Okanogan/Okanagan...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2015
Project Description
The overall objective of this project is to develop a new, authoritative, coordinated numerical model that efficiently and accurately simulates water levels and connecting channel flows in the Great Lakes system given user-specified net basin supply scenarios. The new regulation and routing model...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2015
Project Description
In an effort to better understand the correlation between water levels and temperature and fish spawning in the Rainy Lake system, the International Rainy-Lake of the Woods Watershed Board (IRLWWB) need water level, temperature and fish data in the Seine River upstream of Rainy Lake. The data will...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2015
Project Description
This project is the fifth and final phase of the two-dimensional hydrodynamic model to simulate hypothetical flood mitigation scenarios on the lower Pembina River Floodplains. The latest modelling efforts on hypothetical flooding in the Pembina Basin explores the potential relief of floods through...
Bundle name
IWI Project
Year
2015
Project Description
The environmental performance indicators (PI) for the Lower St. Lawrence River (IERM2D) are a critical component of the evaluation of water level regulation plans for the Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River system and are important to maintain in an adaptive management perspective. These PIs have been...
Bundle name
IWI Project