News

Resource economist and Water Institute executive director Dr. Roy Brouwer shares his expertise on the economic value of the Amazon rainforest and the recent vote by Ecuadorians to stop oil drilling with Time Magazine.

Ecuadorians voted on Sunday to stop an oil-drilling project in the Yasuni region of the Amazon with 59% voting yes on a proposition that will end the practice.

Dr. Roy Brouwer, a resource economist and executive director of the Water Institute at the University of Waterloo, who conducted a study on the economic value of the Amazon rainforest, says that Indigenous populations tend to place an extremely high value on the environmental sanctity of the forest. 

“They've lived in the Amazon for 11,000 years. How are you going to compensate these people by taking away their livelihood, cutting the forest and having them move out of the area where they live for 11,000 years? There's no monetary compensation for that.”

Read the full article in Time here.

Water Institute member Dr. Susan Elliott, Professor and University Research Chair in Medical Geography talks about the Women Rise Together Across the Life Course (Write-life) project.

Around the world, women and girls have disproportionately suffered from the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19. Women have borne the brunt of layoffs and loss of livelihoods, sacrificed their own health at the frontlines of the pandemic response and disproportionately shouldered the burden of the additional caregiving associated with COVID-19.

There are over two billion bikes in the world, and an equivalent number of people without safe drinking water. The leaders of a new University of Waterloo initiative, Water Cycles Expeditions, believe the connection between water and cycling is more than a mere coincidence. Next month, all are invited to join the Water Cycles Bikes and Blues Festival, held in Belwood, ON on September 9^th to explore how cycling can reconnect people and water and help to empower communities to understand and address local water challenges.

Professor David Simakov is developing innovative technologies to solve complex environmental challenges

By Nicola Kelly, Faculty of Engineering

David Simakov, a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, is actively engaged in two bold interdisciplinary collaborations with Canadian and international partners to advance UN Sustainable Development Goals. These initiatives are focused on two areas: affordable clean energy and clean water. Simakov’s research focuses on the conversion of CO2 into renewable synthetic fuels and sustainable hydrogen generation.  

A new documentary on unsustainable fishing practices and ocean life protection

By Faculty of Environment

In many institutions, postdoctoral fellows feel they have fallen through a gap somewhere between faculty and graduate student groups, leaving them with little sense of belonging. This situation is quite disheartening to them to feel like they don't quite belong anywhere. 

To fill that gap, the Water Institute is pleased to announce the launch of the Water Institute Postdoc (WIP) network to help water-related postdocs across campus feel more supported and connected during their time at the University of Waterloo.

The Water Institute recently had the pleasure of hosting Elvia Rufo Jiménez an early-stage researcher from PRORISK – part of the European Training Network.

From data to knowledge

One of the greatest threats to the health of the Great Lakes is the increasing frequency and severity of algal blooms occurring in response to excess nutrients in the water under a warming climate.

This article was originally published by the Department of Chemical Engineering.

The American Chemical Society announced the launch of a new journal titled “ACS Sustainable Resource Management” on June 13, 2023, with Water Institute member Michael Tam as Deputy Editor. Tam is excited to shape the direction of this new publication and bring it to the forefront in this emerging field. He will develop strategies to promote awareness of the journal to the academic community.

Waterloo delegates at the 2023 Canadian Water Resources Association conference.

The Water Institute was well represented at the recent Canadian Water Resources Association conference, which took place from June 18-21, 2023 in Halifax, NS. The delegation included faculty members Bryan Tolson and James Craig, a number of their students, as well as Nancy Goucher, the Water Institute’s Knowledge Mobilization Specialist.