Scope of this project is to design the Groundwater Chautauqua Information System a conceptual multi-stakeholder information system on Alberta’s groundwater resources to evaluate and assess future groundwater demand while sustaining water resources and environmental quality. The envisaged objectives are:• To design a social and technology platform (Groundwater Chautauqua Information System) needed for developing sharing and continuously improving groundwater models in Alberta among specialists in Alberta government consultants and service companies the energy industry and other sectors.• To develop features of the Groundwater Chautauqua Information System • To identify further developments of the Groundwater Chautauqua Information System based on users’ feedback.Albertans with a stake in well-regulated energy development will benefit from the existence of a living public-domain ready-for-use calibrated and trusted set of groundwater flow models in areas of intense energy development which meet international scientific standards. The models will be continuously re-used updated and improved by the professional user community to best meet Alberta’s goals of having safe drinking water having secure groundwater supply for energy developments and maintaining healthy groundwater-supported ecosystems. The results of the models will flow easily through the Groundwater Chautauqua Information System to the front-line regulatory workers in AER and AEP who administer and adjudicate the Alberta Water Act in ways that are fit for purpose and that make their work more effective and efficient on behalf of industry and all Albertans.

Because of its location atop a thick sedimentary basin with a world-class endowment of hydrocarbons and coal Alberta’s long-term economic performance and rate of population growth is usually well above the Canadian average. Energy-development growth leads to ongoing increases in water demand for energy extraction and leads to risk of water-quality degradation due to waste-management practices changes in land use or spills. Allocations and diversions of water in Alberta in all sectors including energy have traditionally been focused on surface-water sources. Groundwater diversions have historically represented a very minimal set of the total permitted water diversions. But Alberta’s surface-water supplies are reaching their limits. The largest river basin of southern Alberta is now closed to new surface-water allocations. Annual snowpack and summer glacial meltwaters are becoming more unreliable and both main stem and tributary rivers in central and northern Alberta are becoming stressed with respect to flows. Alberta’s groundwater resources on the other hand are relatively undeveloped. The importance of groundwater to Alberta as an untapped resource capable of meeting future water demand for energy development while sustaining environmental quality means that investment in good groundwater management is vital for Alberta’s energy sector. Predictive groundwater computer-simulations (groundwater models) are essential for groundwater-resource management. Groundwater models honour local geology and obey physical and chemical principles of hydrogeology as translated into mathematical and statistical formulations. The models can be solved or “run” in hindcast and forecast modes to assess pre-development natural resource states (essential understanding for ecological service values) as well as trajectories of groundwater quantity and quality change under past and future development. There is a clear need for a groundwater information system based on trusted groundwater models to evaluate and assessof proposed new water wells and their cumulative (environmental) effects to support licensing processes and to monitor the impacts of operations on groundwater resources and groundwater quality. The groundwater information system should be an open platform and present impacts of proposed activities in a transparent way. The main users of this groundwater information system are industry operators especially in the energy sector municipalities farmers land-owners policy makers land-use and natural resource planners and regulators. The main beneficiaries of the groundwater information system are Albertans at large who want assurance that drinking water is safe that there is secure water supply for the economy and that Alberta’s aquatic ecosystems remain healthy.

The project approach to achieve the objectives will be divided into 3 steps structured around a “lean-startup” style build-measure-learn cycle that couples accelerated development with low initial costs. The key to success in this approach is to build rapid prototypes (conceptual systems) called the minimum viable product (MVP) with the minimum amount of functionality that the target customer considers viable but no more than is needed to test your hypotheses with customers that the functionality solves the problem. Feedback from target customers is collected and measured and used to do another iteration of the MVP during which time the existing solution is already being diffused through the entire base of target customers (from innovators to early adopters to early majority to late majority and finally to laggards). The goal of this approach is to leverage human creativity more effectively and to test the vision continuously and adapt immediately to customer needs that are exposed with increasing certainty during the process.There are two distinct (with different levels of expertise) customers for this work: 1) the regulators and regulated parities who use the results of the models and 2) the hydrogeology specialists who use groundwater models to produce the results. In reality these two groups overlap significantly and their needs may be met by a common solution. Rather than separate the two audiences at the beginning based on our presumption of their different needs we will use the MVP approach and their customer feedback to guide solution development and meet the stated objectives. We will admittedly start with a bias towards a single shared solution that can meet both stated objectives based on similar challenges solved in other nations though we will retain flexibility to allow us pivot to a different solution space if so guided by the reactions of the customer groups.The three steps in this approach are:1. Step 1: Review the statement of the problem and build the first iteration of the minimum viable product. This connects the problem space to the solution space.2. Step 2: Deploy and test user response to one or more potential solutions at the MVP level. Inside AER this will be done in conjunction with our Continuous Improvement team.3. Step 3: Gather learnings and identify additional requirements from the complete Alberta community of hydrogeological practice for further development of the Groundwater Chautauqua Information System.

The problem for groundwater models is that to be effective models need to be developed in a highly collaborative transparent manner so as to benefit from the experience and knowledge of the entire hydrogeology community while avoiding duplicate or competing models. Models should be widely shareable and updatable so the user community can drive continuous improvement. Shared models can build public trust so policy or regulatory limits imposed by authorities using model results will be accepted reducing regulatory costs and social disputes. To be effective the results of groundwater models need to be available current and properly formatted so users of the results have low-cost efficient pathways to find extract understand and apply the results with confidence. The current state of groundwater modelling in Alberta’s energy sector is not ideal. Groundwater models are rare and often single-use creations. When built they are expensive single-purpose constructs poorly archived if at all never shared or published and they hardly ever benefit from collaborative inputs or continuous improvement achieved by constant use field-truthing and adjustment. The benefits of groundwater models are thus seldom realized through better policy regulation investment or dispute resolution. The loss is multiplied by the opportunities lost when groundwater resources become overused or contaminated as a result of uninformed management practices. As well without continuous use and sharing groundwater models in Alberta usually become technologically stale as single-purpose models do not benefit from ongoing improvements in modelling practice or scientific advances. Models seldom get deployed in advanced applications like land-use planning resource optimization or to support integrated cumulative effects management as often found in other sophisticated economies.This problem can be solved by creating a Groundwater Information System where groundwater models can be shared deployed reused and improved by specialists in a cycle of continuous improvement and delivery of trusted fit-for-purpose results to regulatory decision makers and industry in the energy sector.

• Making the first minimum viable product of the Groundwater Chautauqua Information System and testing it immediately.
• This product will be applicable for West-Central Alberta (Fox Creek), Sylvan Lake sub-basin in the Edmonton-Calgary Corridor, and the region covering AGS’ Southern Alberta Regional Groundwater Simulation (SARGs).
• The Groundwater Chautauqua Information System should incorporate the production/calculation and dissemination of aquifer-yields (i.e. Fox Creek Area Groundwater Yield-Limits), water balances, and effects of existing and forecasted groundwater and surface water extractions (quantitative understanding of cumulative effects of water withdrawals) relevant to Alberta Water Act authorizations as a starting point.

Alle partijen krijgen alle resultaten van het Project ter beschikking. De resultaten van de samenwerking kunnen breed verspreid worden. Partijen kunnen over deze resultaten vrijelijk publiceren. De resultaten zullen volledig openbaar beschikbaar zijn, met uitzondering van ter beschikking gestelde achtergrondkennis.

De informatie over dit project wordt kenbaar gemaakt via de website van de TKI Deltatechnologie (projectbeschrijving) en de projectwiki van Deltares (projectvoortgang en resultaten).

Na de datum waarop deze Overeenkomst in werking is getreden, maar uiterlijk tot een jaar voor de beoogde datum waarop het Project zal zijn voltooid, kunnen ondernemers en/of onderzoeksinstellingen, die op het terrein van het relevante subsidieprogramma van het TKI werkzaam zijn alsnog als Partij toetreden. Een later toetredende Partij zal een nader overeen te komen bijdrage in kind en/of in cash moeten leveren die in redelijke verhouding staat tot zijn relatief aandeel in het Project na toetreding. De overige Partijen ontvangen vervolgens naar rato een terugbetaling en/ of gedeeltelijke vrijstellingen van hun nog te leveren bijdrage in kind, voor zover niet besloten wordt de bijdrage van de later toetredende Partij aan het projectbudget toe te voegen.