Effects of the Alberta Floods of 2013 on Bow River Water Chemistry

• Main Author: Stolarek, Hunter
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Queen's University 2024
• Subjects: Athabasca River
• Online Access: https://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/inquiryatqueens/article/view/17444

While severe flooding can cause significant property damage, the impact of flood events on water quality is not well understood. In June and July of 2013, southern Alberta experienced the worst flooding that the region had seen for over 100 years.1 Several rivers in and around Calgary flooded, including Bow River, which experienced the worst flooding.1 My research uses publicly available data from Alberta’s Water Quality Data Portal and Environment Canada to investigate the impact of flooding on water chemistry variables and the relationships between them. Since Bow River provides 60% of the drinking water for Calgary2, water chemistry changes could have economic and public health implications, as well as possible negative ecosystem effects. Furthermore, with floods increasing in frequency and severity in conjunction with climate change, results from this research will become more important in the future.3 The variables investigated are pH, phosphorus, turbidity, chlorophyll a, dissolved organic carbon, chlorine, copper, fluoride, dissolved oxygen, and nitrate nitrogen. Monthly data for each of these variables was plotted between 2008 and 2018 to gain an understanding of the trends of each element in the river water before and after the flooding. Linear correlation tests were completed for several variables using the data gathered in 2013. Data for nearby Athabasca River, which remained unflooded, was also processed and is used as a control. Among the significant findings was a strong correlation between turbidity and phosphorus in Bow River in 2013 (R2 = 0.956). Both variables reached their peak for the 2008-2018 period during the 2013 flood, while they showed no rise or correlation in Athabasca River (R2 = 0.082). Neither river showed a significant correlation between phosphorus and dissolved oxygen, conflicting with expectations since these two variables have been found to be negatively correlated in several other studies.4 References The City of Calgary. (n.d.). Flooding in Calgary - Flood of 2013. ...