Urban Watershed Group Projects

Bird Construction Ltd.

Dear Team,

I wanted to extend my heartfelt thanks to each of you for your invaluable contributions to the 29 Birch Street RFP. Your dedication, insights, and collaborative spirit have been instrumental in shaping a comprehensive and compelling proposal. It’s amazing how well this team has come together and worked online, and this RFP document and team will form a repeatable and formidable approach as we see more RFPs hit the province.

On behalf of BIRD, thank you once again for your commitment and exceptional work. I look forward to our continued success together.

Sean Hart
Construction Manager
Bird Construction Ltd.
January 9, 2024
 

University of Guelph

The reappearance of excessive nutrient loading in Lake Erie and the subsequent algae blooms is an extremely complex issue and is quite different in nature than the previous phosphorous loadings in the 1970s. Unlike the issue in the 1970s, there are far more sources adding nutrients to the late and these sources are diverse in nature ranging from rural to urban. In order to understand the nutrient loading, both in the temporal and spatial domains, more complex analytic and predictive tools are required in order to help policy make sound, science based, and defendable solutions.

The University of Guelph is uniquely positioned to help address the issues around Lake Erie with long standing core strengths in both the agricultural sector and the environmental field. In conjunction with our partner, Greenland Consulting Engineers, and their watershed evaluation tool (CANWET^TM), we believe that we have the engineering and technology to extrapolate CANWET^TM from the watershed level up to the lake basin level and provide decision-making support for the entire Lake Erie basin.

Hussein Abdullah, Ph.D., P. Eng.
Director, School of Engineering
University of Guelph
January, 26 2015
 

Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation

The Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation (ICCA) is a national applied research centre that focuses on mobilizing practical and cost-effective solutions to address climate change and extreme weather events. To this end, the ICCA is an incubator of new adaptation ideas, conducting research, knowledge mobilization and promoting initiatives aimed at de-risking the negative impacts of a changing climate and extreme weather. One of ICCA’s concerns is a growing uninsurable housing market in Canada relative to sewer backup.
 
ICCA believes the advanced technology and features of the SafeSump system can be instrumental to mitigating basement flood potential.  I have one of the first prototypes of the SafeSump system installed in my home. I have interacted directly with the start-up founder. I view him as entrepreneurial and passionate, and have met other members of his team with whom I was similarly impressed.  I am also familiar with Greenland Consulting Engineers, and congratulate SafeSump Inc. on their choice to create a joint “SafeSump” venture with Greenland.
 
ICCA looks forward to a supportive relationship with SafeSump Inc. upon the larger scale availability of their much-needed technology.

Dr. Blair Feltmate
Head, Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation
Faculty of Environment
University of Waterloo
October 6, 2016