The 8th Annual Banff Conference for the Alberta Institute of Agrologists was held in April 2012. This year's conference theme was Water: What is the risk? Agriculture, energy and urban end use. The Alberta Land-use Knowledge Network videotaped several of the presentations, available through the links below.
- Dr. William Shotyk - "There must be something in the water" - keynote presentation. Dr. Shotyk is the Bocock Chair in Agriculture and the Environment at the University of Alberta. His presentation is regarding water quality issues in Alberta, agriculture, water knowledge and Alberta's unique opportunities. Video part 1. Video part 2. Read Dr. Shotyk's conference 'green paper' here.
- Bill Irvine - "Total water management in communities: Challenges & strategies." Irvine, president of Total Water Ltd., talks about a new blueprint for community water management, using Bragg Creek as an example of the new perspective on total water management. Video
- Dr. David Chanasyk - "Water management: A vision for 2050." Dr. Chanasyk of the University of Alberta's department of Renewable Resources uses the essentials of hydrology to discuss Alberta's future water management challenges. Video
- Andy Ridge - "Alberta's water priorities: Update on wetlands." Ridge, Director of Water Policy for Alberta Environment & Water, discusses the provincial government's priorities for water, emerging focus areas, and the province's wetlands management approach moving forward. Video
- Bob Sanford - "Cold matters: The snows of yesteryear & the future water supply of the mountain west." - Sanford examines the increasing variability in climate in western Canada, in particular the changes in glaciers and snow pack, and what that means for the future of water in this province. Video
- North Sask. Watershed Alliance - "Watershed management planning for the North Saskatchewan River basin." David Trew, Executive Director of the NSWA, describes the process of developing an integrated watershed management plan for the North Saskatchewan River. Video
- Jennifer Grant - "Reconciling water use in the oilsands - Challenges and opportunities." Grant, Oilsands Program Director for the Pembina Institute, discusses the demand for water in oilsands development, as well as how projected remediation could be improved. Video
- Dr. Alison Eagle - "Water and energy as pioneers in environmental markets." Dr. Eagle, research associate with the Institute for Land Use Innovation at the University of Alberta, presents the case for environmental markets for ecosystem services. Video
- Thorsten Hebben - "Pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and other organic wastewater contaminants in Alberta: A provincial overview." Hebben, a Water Quality Specialist with Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development, presents information on the effect of personal care products and drugs on wastewater in the province, and the hormonal effects that these compounds can have on water-dwelling organisms. Video
- Kim Sturgess - " Water security: Global problem, local solutions." Sturgess, CEO of Alberta WaterSMART, discusses the global issue of water security, and how the issues may be dealt with closer to home, where people make some difficult trade-offs to ensure base flow protection. Video
- Dr. Ernest Thiessen - "Using Smartsettle for collaborative watershed management." Dr. Thiessen, founder and president of Smartsettle, explains how using the online negotiation tool, Smartsettle, can improve the outcome of collaborative watershed management. Video
- Dr. Connie Simmons - "Athabasca River's state of the watershed report, phase 2." Dr. Simmons explains the details of the state of the watershed report for the Athabasca River, and discusses what is to come for the watershed. Video
- David Percy, Q.C. - "Alberta water law, challenges, possible solutions." David Percy looks at how water law has evolved and some of the challenges that lay ahead. Video
