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Part of Groundwater

Provincial Groundwater Inventory Program

The Alberta government is mapping Alberta's groundwater resources, starting with the Edmonton-Calgary corridor.

Overview

In 2008, an ambitious program was launched to map and inventory groundwater resources in Alberta. The Provincial Groundwater Inventory Program is a joint partnership between Alberta Environment and Protected Areas and the Alberta Geological Survey. The Edmonton-Calgary Corridor was selected as the initial pilot project because of significant growth and development in this area.

Data for the Edmonton-Calgary Corridor project was collected in various ways. Airborne geophysical surveys were conducted to map various rock types. Thousands of existing water well and oil and gas drilling records were used in conjunction with the airborne data. These were supported by the drilling of boreholes, groundwater sampling and other field-based activities.

The information was used to construct a geological model which will be used to build a regional groundwater flow model by adding various water inputs and outputs. This will enable better understanding of the occurrence and movement of groundwater in the subsurface. Enhanced understanding of the groundwater supply allows for better management of this valuable 'hidden' resource.

Products that have been released for the Edmonton-Calgary Corridor project are listed below. A significant milestone has been reached with release of the Edmonton-Calgary Corridor Groundwater Atlas. The educational atlas summarizes the findings of this mapping and inventory project over the past 3 years and has been prepared for a non-technical audience. More technical reports will be released later, providing more detailed scientific information for the various components of the project.

Reports and maps

Edmonton-Calgary Corridor Project

Regional groundwater vulnerability maps

The Alberta government provides groundwater vulnerability mapping for the agricultural areas of the province. This is presented for the 3 southern regional planning areas defined under the Land-use Framework:

  1. North Saskatchewan Region Groundwater Vulnerability Map
  2. Red Deer Region Groundwater Vulnerability Map
  3. South Saskatchewan Region Groundwater Vulnerability Map

Metadata for these maps is available on the GeoDiscover Alberta website.