Changing Currents – Appendices – Glossary
CHAPTER SEVEN: APPENDICES
Glossary
| ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT | The implementation of policies as experiments. A methodological approach to resource management whereby management decisions can be adjusted based on outcomes. |
| ALLOCATION | The process of determining who is given access to an amount of water from a surface or ground water source, how much that amount is, and when it may be used. |
| AQUIFER | A subsurface layer or layers of rock or other geological strata of sufficient porosity and permeability to allow either a significant flow of groundwater or the abstraction of significant quantities of groundwater. |
| CONSUMPTIVE WATER USE | The amount of that water intake that is not returned to natural sources, generally lost to evaporation or contained within wastewater or products. |
| DRAINAGE BASINS | A geographical area that drains all precipitation received as a runoff or base flow (groundwater sources) into a particular river or set of rivers. |
| EFFLUENT | A liquid, solid, or gaseous emission, such as the discharge or outflow from an industrial process. |
| ENVIRONMENTAL FLOW | The quantity, timing, and quality of water flows required to sustain freshwater and estuarine ecosystems and the human livelihoods and well-being that depend on these ecosystems. |
| ECOSYSTEM RESILIENCE | The capacity of an ecosystem to cope with disturbances, such as storms, fire, and pollution, without shifting into a qualitatively different state. A resilient ecosystem has the capacity to withstand shocks and surprises and, if damaged, to rebuild itself. |
| ECOSYSTEM SERVICES | The benefits provided to people, both directly and indirectly, by ecosystems and biodiversity. Direct economic benefits are those materials gained through the use of natural assets (e.g., water, trees, crops) that provide inputs to production. Indirect benefits refer to all those natural goods and assets that keep soil intact, recycle pollutants, pollinate plants, provide oxygen, and lead to regeneration of natural assets. |
| GROSS WATER USE | The total amount of water taken from a source (ground or surface). |
| HYDROLOGICAL CYCLE | The cycle in which water evaporates from the oceans and the land surface, is carried over the earth in atmospheric circulation as water vapour, precipitates again as rain or snow, is intercepted by trees and vegetation, provides runoff on the land surface, infiltrates into soils, recharges groundwater, discharges into streams, and ultimately, flows out into the oceans, from which it will eventually evaporate again. |
| INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (IWRM) | A process that promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land, and related resources in order to maximize the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems. |
| MAKE-UP WATER | Water (not produced water) that is injected into an oil-bearing zone to enhance the operation of an enhanced oil recovery project. Make-up water is new water needed to replace the volume of oil and gas produced in conventional enhanced oil recovery projects, and replace volumes of produced water that are lost in the treatment and steam generation processes for thermal in-situ projects (oil or crude bitumen). In electrical generation, the term is also used to describe the largest volume of water required by an electric generator, which typically will be used in the cooling tower. |
| PRODUCED WATER | Water that is extracted from the subsurface along with oil, gas, or other hydrocarbons. |
| PROCESS WATER | Water that is used in the manufacturing process. |
| RECIRCULATED WATER | Water that is used more than once, often for different processes. Recirculated water can also refer to water that leaves a particular process and then re-enters that same process, including water that is discharged to a cooling pond and is later reused. |
| RETURN FLOW | Water that is withdrawn but returned to its source or to another body of ground or surface water as opposed to being consumed or lost via evapotranspiration. |
| SALINE WATER (BRACKISH) | Water that contains a significant concentration of dissolved salts. In Alberta, this refers to groundwater that has >4000 mg/L total dissolved solids. |
| TAILINGS | Ground rock and process effluents that are generated in a mine processing plant. |
| TAILINGS IMPOUNDMENT | Structures functionally pertaining to tailings, including (but not limited to) dams, spillways, and decant structures. |
| WATER ALLOCATION | The quantity of water available to be taken under a water access licence. |
| WATER BALANCE | An equation used in hydrology to describe the flow of water in and out of a system. |
| WATER DISCHARGE | Water that is withdrawn, used, and then returned to the natural environment. |
| WATER EFFICIENCY | The accomplishment of a function, task, process, or result with the minimal amount of water feasible. The term water efficiency can also be used as an indicator of the relationship between the amount of water required for a particular purpose and the amount of water used or delivered. |
| WATER FOOTPRINT | The total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual or community (measured in cubic metres per year). |
| WATER INTAKE OR WITHDRAWAL | The total amount of water extracted for use in an establishment or industry. |
| WATERSHED | An area of land that intercepts and drains precipitation through a particular river system or group of river systems. |
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