Une amélioration rentable pour le réseau canadien de surveillance environnementale : la surveillance communautaire de l’eau

This policy brief advocates for a shift from short-term competitive grants to five-year base funding for community-based water monitoring (CBWM) in Canada. It highlights critical gaps in Canada's watershed knowledge—noting that 100 of 167 watersheds lack health scores—and argues that CBWM is a cost-effective method (> 3:1) to collect rigorous long-term data. The brief recommends a five-year pilot project to strengthen local capacities and suggests the Canadian Water Agency as a coordinator to improve data interoperability across federal, provincial, and local levels.

• Community-based water monitoring (CBWM) is presented as a scientifically rigorous and cost-effective approach for collecting water quality data over medium and long terms at the watershed scale, with a cost-benefit ratio exceeding 3:1.
• Canada's current water monitoring is insufficient; 100 out of 167 watersheds are so poorly understood that no health score can be assigned, and the number of flow gauging stations has decreased over the last 30 years.
• The current funding model for CBWM, which relies on competitive grants with 2-3 year cycles, is incompatible with the need for long-term monitoring and has forced organizations to reduce data analysis and dissemination.
• Failure to invest in long-term monitoring may lead to insurance risks where certain regions of Canada become uninsurable due to a lack of hydrometric data, and may negatively impact the ESG scores of Canadian resource companies.
• The brief recommends establishing a five-year pilot project for CBWM and suggests that the Canadian Water Agency coordinate efforts across federal, provincial, territorial, and local levels to reduce redundancy.

APA

Gunn, G. (2021). Une amélioration rentable pour le réseau canadien de surveillance environnementale : la surveillance communautaire de l’eau. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2022-01/investment-canadian-community-based-water-monitoring-brief-fr.pdf

Chicago

Gunn, Geoffrey. Une amélioration rentable pour le réseau canadien de surveillance environnementale : la surveillance communautaire de l’eau. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2021. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2022-01/investment-canadian-community-based-water-monitoring-brief-fr.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Gunn |first1=Geoffrey |title=Une amélioration rentable pour le réseau canadien de surveillance environnementale : la surveillance communautaire de l’eau |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=November 2021 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2022-01/investment-canadian-community-based-water-monitoring-brief-fr.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{gunn2021une, author = {Gunn, Geoffrey}, title = {{Une amélioration rentable pour le réseau canadien de surveillance environnementale : la surveillance communautaire de l’eau}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2021}, month = nov, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2022-01/investment-canadian-community-based-water-monitoring-brief-fr.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }