Abstract

IJC Dam Harmonization: International Swath of the Columbia River Basin
Track: Water Resources
Authors: Scott Campbell, Judy Kwan

As a result of the success brought by the IJC Canada-U.S. trans-boundary hydrographic data harmonization efforts, Canada and the U.S. now have consistent and comparable hydrographic datasets for the "international swath of the Columbia River Basin. The cross-border rivers/streams have been connected and the trans-boundary 'container' watersheds have been set and are ready to receive pertinent datasets useful for trans-boundary H&H modeling and water resource planning. One of the most important datasets for these activities would be a harmonized bi-national impoundment structures(dams, weirs, etc) dataset. Leveraging on the work of the IJC project, a small team of Canadian and U.S. GIS specialists collaboratively develop a harmonized impoundment structures GIS database to extend hydrographic harmonization to potential new users. To properly enhance the utility of already existing hydro data, all geospatial dam data from each country was collated and assessed. Results and lessons learned will be discussed.