NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: North Slave Region, South Slave Region

Tags: physical sciences, hydrology, infrastructure planning

Objective(s): To characterize the hydro potential of the NWT, and the hydrological information collected from the four gauging sites will be used to determine if any hydro potential exists on these four rivers.

Project Description: NT Hydro is in the process of characterizing the hydro potential of the NWT, and the hydrological information collected from the four gauging sites will be used to determine if any hydro potential exists on these four rivers. These gauges are not being installed in relation to development of a specific hydro project on these water bodies. Gauging stations operate and log data continously in a 12 month annual basis. Water Survey will make 3-5 trips a year to each gauging station to take flow measurements and service and/or maintain hydrometric equipment. All access to gauging sites wil be via helicopter or fixed wing aircraft and crew will be spend approximately 2-5 hours at each site. Installation of the gauging stations: Hydrometric gauging equipment will be housed in a 48 x 36 x 12 inch Stahlin fibreglass shelter which is mounted on an aluminum frame. The aluminum frame will be bolted to bedrock with four 3/... Show more4 inch anchor bolts, or mounted on a 4 x 4 foot wooden frame base if bedrock is not available (refer to photo attached in map section of application). Inside the enclosure, there will be a Sutron Satlink2 data logger, two 12 volt sealed batteries charged by a 20 watt solar panel. The hydrometric data will be logged and transmitted every 3 hours to satellite. The proposed hydrologic data collection program is a very small scale program that involves the installation of automated hydrology gauging stations at four designated sites on the Beaulieu, Barnston, Hoarfrost and Waldron rivers in the east arm area of Great Slave Lake. A benefit of the program is that stream flow and hydrology data that is collected will be publically available through Water Survey Canada and can be used by communities and other agencies in land use planning, monitoring environmental health and water resource management. Gauges will be installed and monitored by the Water Survey of Canada. All data collected is publically available and can be accessed via Water Surveys online database: http://www.wsc.ec.gc.ca/products/main_e.cfm?cname=products_e.cfm. Once enough data has been collected over a period of time (2-5 years), than the hydro potential of these water bodies can be assessed and this will be communicated to communities via NT Hydro's ongoing efforts to work with communities in the area. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from June 2, 2010 to December 31, 2010. Show less