Influence of man

The map shows dam sites and reservoir capacity in 1969, the water diversions in 1975, the steam-electric generating station greater than 20 megawatts operating in 1974, the industrial waste disposal well sites in 1970, the irrigated areas in 1970 and the drained and protected areas in 1970. There are many areas where man can have a profound influence on natural water systems. Although they cannot be illustrated in map form, particularly on the scale of this map, the following can be considered as areas where man can have deleterious effects on the water environment. Although 90 per cent of Canada's population is concentrated within 150 miles of the international border, approximately 60 per cent of the nation's total runoff is carried by rivers which flow away from densely populated southern areas. Many schemes have been proposed for diverting water from these rivers to increase the water supply in the southern parts of the country. The few diversions constructed to date have been relatively small and local in scale, and designed primarily for power. Reservoirs may be designed for the purpose of influencing streamflow through their available storage capacity. The storage, by…

Publisher

Natural Resources Canada

Resources

4

Catalogue metadata updated

2022-02-22