June 13, 2017, Vancouver, BC, Canada – Knight Piésold Canada presented a paper titled “Deterministic Lake and Stream Temperature Modelling: Maintaining Optimal Water Temperatures for Kokanee and Rainbow Trout through Informed Design” at the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE) Annual Conference, which took place in Vancouver, BC on May 31 to June 3, 2017.

The conference, which was held on the theme “leadership in sustainable infrastructure,” included four specialty conferences: (1) 6^th International Conference on Engineering Mechanics and Materials, (2) 15^th International Conference on Environmental Engineering, (3) 23^rd Canadian Hydrotechnical Conference, and (4) 6^th CSCE/CRC International Construction Specialty Conference. Over 600 practitioners and researchers in the civil engineering industry participated in this year’s conference, sharing their experiences and findings.

Alana Shewan, Anna Akkerman, and Violeta Martin authored the paper, which was presented on June 2 during the ecohydraulics and fisheries engineering session of the 23^rd Canadian Hydrotechnical Conference. The presentation focused on a case study where Knight Piésold utilized several water temperature models to support the preliminary design of a water supply system for a proposed mine in BC.

The proposed water supply system includes an intake in a nearby lake, a pipeline conveyance system, and a small reservoir with multiple outlets. Knight Piésold modelled water temperatures throughout the supply system and in the receiving creek using three models: (1) a 1D freshwater lake model (FLake) for the lake and reservoir, (2) a heat transfer pipeline model, and (3) a stream segment temperature model (SSTEMP) for the creek. Knight Piésold ran operation models for various design considerations to investigate if stream temperatures could be maintained within optimal ranges to support various life stages of Kokanee and Rainbow trout populations. Modelling helped to inform various elements of the preliminary design, such as preferred intake depths, pipeline materials, and reservoir outlet controls. The modelling also identified periods in which conditions similar to baseline could not be fully achieved and additional mitigation measures needed to be considered.