Watershed Research
Learn about the research that is done to keep our streams healthy.
We monitor our streams and do research to make sure they are healthy. Some of our research includes monitoring streams for erosion issues, mapping out salmon usage of streams and much more. Learn about the different ways we monitor this and how it is mapped out.
Water quality monitoring
We provide water quality in streams reports to the Ministry of Environment to help us monitor watershed health and identify opportunities to improve the condition of the watershed. There are 34 monitoring locations throughout Surrey. This is part of the Adaptive Management Framework (AMF).
As part of the Boundary Bay Assessment & Monitoring program, we sample fresh and marine water from the Boundary Bay watershed area. Water is collected from 3 freshwater sites, 3 estuarine sites, and 10 marine locations totaling to 16 monitoring locations.
We also conduct stream bed sampling at 40 monitoring locations across the city. Stream bugs (Benthic invertebrates) tell us how healthy a stream is. Since we regularly take samples we can see if there are any changes to the health of the stream.
PSEC Community Stream Monitoring (CoSMo) project
Maintaining good water quality in our urban streams is an essential component of stream protection. The City has partnered with the Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) Pacific Science Enterprise Centre (PSEC) and is an active participant in the PSEC Community Stream Monitoring (CoSMo) project.
As part of the project, the City maintains several dataloggers that monitor water quality throughout Surrey’s 1,400 kilometres of urban watercourses. As many of these watercourses support urban populations of salmon and trout, as well as a variety of wildlife, understanding water quality is integral to ensuring that these aquatic habitats remain healthy for many generations to come.
The CoSMo water quality data are hosted on the DataStream platform, which is a free data-sharing platform that showcases and makes publicly available the water quality datasets collected throughout the City, and across Canada.
Environmental maps
Sensitive Habitat Inventory Mapping (SHIM) is an ecosystem-based mapping technique that focuses on tech conservation and preservation of aquatic habitats and their riparian areas.
View the Fish Classifications Map to learn about the different streams in Surrey.