Guides: Integrated Water Management: Web resources

Websites

Government & NGO
Data and Statistics

iPortal - Indigenous Studies Portal Research Tool
The Indigenous Studies Portal (iPortal) is a database of full-text electronic resources such as articles, e-books, theses, government publications, videos, oral histories, and digitized archival documents and photographs. The iPortal content has a primary focus on Indigenous peoples of Canada with a secondary focus on North American materials and beyond.
Environment Canada - Natural Resources
ECCC informs Canadians about protecting and conserving our natural heritage, and ensuring a clean, safe and sustainable environment for present and future generations.
Natural Resources Canada (NRCan)
Natural Resources Canada seeks to enhance the responsible development and use of Canada’s natural resources and the competitiveness of Canada’s natural resources products.
Alberta WaterPortal Society
Founded in 2006, in the spirit of the Water for Life strategy, the Alberta WaterPortal provides inclusive research, community engagement, and educational activities to improve the public’s understanding of the importance of water in Alberta, as well as providing Albertans with the knowledge needed to make better water management decisions.
Alberta Irrigation Districts Association
Since 1946, the Alberta Irrigation Districts Association (AIDA) has represented the interests and needs of its members to ensure the viability and sustainability of the irrigation sector. Irrigation Infrastructure including 8,000 km of canals and pipelines and 57 water storage reservoirs, convey water to the arid region of the southern Alberta providing water for food production, communities, business, wildlife and wetlands , and recreation opportunities. The presence of this irrigation infrastructure significant influences the economic, social, and environmental well-being of the region and provides great value to the Province of Alberta.
Alberta Energy Regulator
The AER ensures the safe, efficient, orderly, and environmentally responsible development of oil, oil sands, natural gas, and coal resources over their entire life cycle. This includes allocating and conserving water resources, managing public lands, and protecting the environment while providing economic benefits for all Albertans.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) - Research
At laboratories located throughout the nation, we identify and try to solve environmental problems. To learn even more, we share information with other countries, private sector organizations, academic institutions, and other agencies.
UN Environment
The United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) is the leading global environmental authority that sets the global environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations system, and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment.

Alberta's Open Data Portal
Search a listing of Government of Alberta open datasets. Including ones for Environment, Energy and Natural Resources, and Health and Wellness.
Aquatic Plant Information Retrieval System
The Aquatic and Invasive Plant Information Retrieval System (APIRS) includes more than 90,000 annotated citations to peer-reviewed and gray literature and reports, with aquatic, wetland and natural area invasive plants as the focus. Annotations include categories, keywords and plant names derived by the APIRS reader/cataloger as opposed to standard library cataloging or copies of abstracts. The database is used by researchers, natural resource managers, government agencies, companies, graduate students and private groups and individuals. Users may request specific searches of the database by contacting the database manager, or they may search it themselves online.
Environmental Indicators
Environmental indicators on air, climate, water, nature, and human influence.
HYDAT Database - Canada
HYDAT is a water database containing data on daily and monthly means of flow, water levels and sediment concentrations (for sediment sites). Data include: daily, monthly, and/or instantaneous data for stream flow, water levels, sediment concentration, sediment particle size, and sediment load for over 2500 active stations and some 5500 discontinued sites across Canada.
OECD Data - Environment
The OECD Environmental Statistics database provide a unique collection of policy-relevant environmental statistics.Keywords: water, environment, economic policy, climate change, outlook, trade, sustainable development, chemical safety, transport, natural resources, biodiversity, eco-innovation, transition economies, indicators, biosafety, waste.
Statistics Canada
Statistics Canada produces statistics that help Canadians better understand their country—its population, resources, economy, society and culture.

Researching with Google

For most of us, Google is our first stop when we begin a new research project or need background information on a topic. Use the tips below to increase your efficiency when searching with Google and don't forget to evaluate information you find on the web.

Exact phrase searching: put quotations around a set of terms to search the phrase exactly as it appears. For example, if you're looking for information on programmable logic controllers, type it in as "programmable logic controllers" to ensure all three words are searched as a phrase.
Search a specific site or domain: want to limit your search results to Government of Alberta sources? Type site:.gov.ab.ca in the search bar along with your search terms to view results from government websites. Use the site: command for any website or domain if you want to limit the source of your results (i.e. site:.edu for US education institutions; site:.org for non-profit organizations; site:.cenovus.com for information from Cenovus).

What is a Patent?

Patents are legal documents that "apply to newly developed technology as well as to improvements on products or processes. Patents provide a time-limited, legally protected, exclusive right to make, use and sell an invention." (Source)

Why use Patents as a Source?

"Patents can be a good source for information on new technology, trends in technological development, and innovations. They often contain references to other literature on the subject of coverage." (Source)

How do I find Patents?

There are several places online to search for Patents, but Google Patents might be a good place to start because it "includes over 120 million patent publications from 100+ patent offices around the world." (Source)

Start by entering your search terms into the Google Patents search bar above. The results will bring up patents and other technical documentation relevant to your search terms. For more tips on searching Google Patents, visit Google Support.

Visit Google Scholar guide

Use Your RADAR

The RADAR Framework is a tool to help you remember the criteria used to evaluate the quality, credibility, and relevance of any source of information. Keep these principles in mind when considering the inclusion of any source - whether print, online or other media - in your assignment.

Relevance – How relevant is the information to your assignment?

Ask yourself if the information relates to your topic or answers your research question.
Consider what specific need this information is fulfilling. Do you need more sources on this specific aspect of your topic?
Consider your audience and compare the information source with a variety of sources.

Authority – Who/what is the source (author, publisher) of the information?

Check the credentials or qualifications of the author. Does the author have credibility through education or experience to be writing on the topic?
If there is no author listed, evaluate the authority of the company/business/organization that published the information.
Consider the affiliation of the author or publisher.

Date – When was the information first published or last updated?

Consider if you need the most recent information on your topic.
A general rule of thumb is to use content created in the last 5 years, but older content may be appropriate depending on your topic.
Historical sources may need to be used to provide context.

Appearance – What does the source of information look like?

Different source types have different elements that may affect the quality or level of information provided. Consider where the information was published. For example, is it published as a webpage, in an academic journal, in a trade publication, etc.?
Consider the way the information is presented: articles supported by evidence and citations are more credible, while editorials, opinion pieces, and blog posts may be more subjective.
Check who/what the author references and evaluate the quality of the information they use to support their argument.
Check for advertisements - inclusion of ads isn't necessarily a red flag, but it may be depending on the content of the ads (are they related to the content in the source?)

Reason (for creation) – Why was the information published in the first place?

Consider if the information was created to inform, teach, entertain, persuade, sell something, or for some other reason.
Are there any clear biases in the information? To what degree is the information objective and impartial?

RADAR is not a yes/no test, or a be-all and end-all guide. Use RADAR to consider the relative quality of information as you are searching.

Using "Bad" Information

Biased, opinionated or even false information can be included in a research project to effectively highlight dissenting opinions or identify commonly held errors. The reliability of such information, however, should always be clearly identified and placed in context with more balanced sources.

If you are unsure about the quality of a source, don’t hesitate to contact the Library for help!