IEESC has particular interest and strength in conducting energy related research. Over the past five years, the Institute has developed an Integrated Canadian Energy Modeling System (ICEM) with multiple modules that can reflect uncertain, dynamic and multiobjective features of energy and environmental management systems. The proposed system can link data acquisition, energy forecasting, modeling formulation, impact assessment, adaptation planning, policy analysis, and community involvement into a general framework ...    More >>

One of the main research interests of IEESC is regional climate modeling (RCM). Funded by Environment Canada since 2005, a regional climate modeling study over Canada has been conducted. The modeling results has been released to the public by Environment Canada, and adopted for supporting policy development by federal and provincial governments and agencies. In addition, with the support (through multi-year grants) from Ministry of Ontario Environment (MOE), high-resolution regional climate modeling studies over Ontario have been carried out since 2008 ... More >>

Canadian Climate Change Scenario Network (CCCSN) is another project which IEESC has accomplished through partnership with Environment Canada for supporting climate change research in Canada. Funded by Environment Canada, the CCCSN was in operation by IEESC (formerly Center for Studies in Energy and Environment, CSEE) in 2005. The CCCSN continues to support climate change impact and adaptation research in Canada and other countries through the provision of GCM scenarios, RCM scenarios and downscaling tools. The CCCSN also supports academic researchers as well as other stakeholders outside of academia who require scenario information for decision-making in the climate-related fields ...    More >>

As supported by Ontario Ministry of Environment, IEESC members developed rainfall intensity-duration-frequency (IDF) curves for 12 areas of interest in the Province of Ontario under future climate scenarios, based on the PRECIS RCM modeling results. The IDF curves were utilized to support climate change impact and adaptation research, improve the fundamental understanding of future climatic conditions, and provide technical, methodological and data support for design, planning and management of stormwater infrastructures.IEESC also developed an integrated interpolation-cluster-inference approach to identify regional IDF curves in the South Ontario Region, as funded by Environment Canada ...    More >>

To satisfy the need for interpolation of regional-scale atmospheric predictor variables (e.g., area averages precipitation, temperature, geo-potential height, and teleconnection indices) to point-scale meteorological series in the climate impact studies, IEESC developed several advanced downscaling methodologies, such as stepwise cluster analysis, multiple surface response, hybrid stochastic process, in partnerships with Environment Canada and Ontario Ministry of Environment.These methods were successfully applied to climate modeling study in the Province of Ontario ...    More >>

IEESC has been actively involved in research of environmental problems from petroleum industries. As a new attempt, IEESC developed a 3D fuzzy-stochastic groundwater simulation model based on the soil and climate conditions in the prairie. This unique model facilitated quantification of risks associated with uncertainties in source, medium and impact conditions, as well as exploration of inexact simulation-optimization methodologies for supporting process control of remediation practices. The developed methods have been applied to a number of real-world case studies ...    More >>

IEESC led a research of ‘Strategies for Managing the Effects of Climate Change on Microbial Contamination of Surface Water Supplies in Small and Aboriginal Communities’, in collaboration with the University of Guelph, University of Manitoba, National Research Council, and several other federal and local organizations. It was a 4-year (2008-2012) national program supported by the Canadian Water Network (CWN), Networks of Centers of Excellence (NCE). It aimed to establish an improved understanding of the challenges which small water utilities were facing under climate change, and provided a scientific basis for mitigating the health risk associated with potentially higher levels of pathogens in surface source water in the future ...    More >>