Water flow in prairie watersheds is increasingly unpredictable—but AI could help

In recent years there have been major fluctuations in climatic conditions in the prairies – very wet years were followed by very dry ones. This makes it even more difficult to predict an already unpredictable landscape, with real consequences for flood preparedness and water quality.

The challenge is the landscape itself. Much of Canada’s prairies lie in the Prairie Pothole Region, a landscape of millions of shallow wetlands and depressions. Water doesn’t just flow downhill into a stream, but is first stored. Once enough wetlands fill up, the water begins to flow from one to the next, and only then does it connect to form channels.

Why does this matter now? In a landscape that can quickly transition from aspiration of water to a downstream connection, small differences in wetland wetness can mean the difference between a manageable spring season and a damaging flood. The problem is that in many watersheds we don’t have the local measurements necessary to determine whether wetlands…