Key Initiatives
Of 40 or so projects that WRIP is involved with the following are some of the larger initiatives. For more detailed information please contact wrip@ontario.ca
Source Water Protection
Drinking Water Source Protection is a provincial initiative lead by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment (MOE). Proclaimed into law on July 3, 2007 and now in force,
The Clean Water Act:
- provides guidelines on the development of Source Protection Plans.
- ensures current and future sources of municipal drinking water from Ontario’s lakes, rivers and groundwater are protected from potential contamination and depletion.
- part of a multi-barrier preventive responsible approach to protecting our own water, the water of our neighbours and sources of water for future generations.
Borehole Database
Boreholes are used to see the makeup of the earth below the surface. One of the things we are looking for are aquifers. The extent and character of aquifers is important to Source Water Protection Planning and to water management.
We have had provincial databases for water wells and petroleum wells for a long time. Until now no such database has existed for geotechnical and scientific boreholes. The new borehole database includes these boreholes.
Geotechnical boreholes provide complementary information to water wells for higher-quality scientific and analytical work. Scientists can improve geological and location information about water wells while leaving the Water Well Information System unchanged as a legal archive.
Hydrology Improvement
Base Data Hydrology Update
Water Resources Information Program (WRIP) developed a series of terrain and water related datasets that have been improved, including:
- the production of a new version of the Provincial DEM (2.0),
- revisions to the Virtual Water Flow Network and
- the development of the Enhanced Flow Direction methodology and derived datasets.
Hydrography Strategy Implementation
Updates to the Hydrology base data and working with partners results in improved water related data within Land Information Ontario (LIO).
WRIP is working to:
- merge two water flow data layers into one
- update watershed boundaries
- provide derivative products using ArcHydro
- provide water-related base data needed for data analysis
Surface Water Data Model
A Quality Checking (QC) Process was established to optimize data for hydrological analysis application for the Great Lakes Basin and Source Protection areas within Ontario. This "Arc Hydro Surface Water Data Model Framework" is a product of three years of research and development with various partners (ESRI, Conservation Ontario and their affiliates), and has been used in the QC Process for improving the datasets that WRIP manages.
The new base data and the initial phase of Arc Hydro hydrology data based on the Quaternary Watersheds of Ontario are expected to be accessible through the LIO, winter 2008. Further enhancements are being considered and planned in later releases of the Arc Hydro Framework (for example, the concept of global delineation, and groundwater model developments currently underway at ESRI).
Low Streamflow Monitoring
The Water Resources Information Program (WRIP) is coordinating the development of Lflow, a data collection and analysis package, to provide a standard data collection, storage and analysis environment for low streamflow data.
Lflow will serve as a foundation for integrating, analyzing and sharing low streamflow data easily and consistently. Lflow is being developed around a standard low streamflow measurement methodology established by the Geological Survey of Canada.
Provincial DEM
A Digital Elevation Model (DEM) is a 3 dimensional model of the Earth’s topography that captures the terrain, water surface and drainage. Water Resources Information Program’s (WRIP) Digital Elevation Model I (DEM1) was created as part of the Provincial Watershed Project. This version focused on source data error detection (for contour and stream network data) and applying a global drainage condition when generating the DEM.
WRIP DEM2 significantly enhances the DEM1 product by additionally including lake boundaries and digital terrain model elevation points (where available) in the DEM surface generation. Field verification, to further determine the accuracy of this elevation surface, is currently ongoing and will be used to enhance future development.
DEM2 is a widely requested dataset. It is used in surface hydrology, groundwater, and data improvement among others. Derivative products from DEM2 such as WRIP’s Enhanced Flow Direction (EFDIR) can be used to create consistent watersheds that honour the hydrology for the majority of the province, and act as a base data layer for the Arc Hydro data model.
Data Architecture
An data architecture encompasses:
- data and information about the data
- how it is managed
- who is involved in its use and management
- why it is needed and its rules of use
- the physical places where it is handled and stored
As Source Water Protection planning begins, we are designing and documenting this foundation with the various involved parties:
- Ministry of the Environment
- Ministry of Natural Resources
- Conservation Authorities
- Municipalities
With this architecture in place, all parties will be handling information in a consistent and cooperative manner.
