AB-2025-07056 - Integrated Groundwater Surface Water Model for the Paskapoo Aquifer and Surrounding Watersheds

The Paskapoo aquifer is Alberta’s most heavily used aquifer and is located in an area of the province where future growth in population and industrial activities are expected. The objective of this project is to develop and calibrate a regional-scale integrated groundwater surface water model that focuses on the watersheds overlying and surrounding the Paskapoo aquifer to evaluate groundwater surface water connectivity across the region and sensitivity to climate variability and change. The province has already developed watershed scale integrated groundwater surface water models for the major river basins (e.g. South Saskatchewan River Basin) using HydroGeoSphere, but the Paskapoo aquifer spans multiple of these basin models, and was represented within a single geological layer. The proposed new aquifer-based model should include a more representative depiction of the various water bearing members within the aquifer. The model and model output will be used by EPA, AGS and our university collaborators for projects related to groundwater surface water interactions, and identifying risk and vulnerability in groundwater and surface water resources in the region.