Sectoral Water Allocations: More about the data

Water allocation data are based on the water licences issued under the provincial Water Act. The breakdown of sector categories that are shown in the indicator reflect the current definitions that exist within the licensing database. Therefore, note that "industrial use" currently means "oil and gas" activity only. Other things that might be thought of as industrial such as manufacturing, pulp & paper and mining are lumped in the commercial (other) category. Thermal power generation is also defined commercial. Under the Water Act, statutory household domestic use (typically individual water wells in rural areas) does not require an approval and therefore are not included in these totals.

Flow data is collected by Alberta's hydrometric monitoring network. This network consists of over 340 stations located throughout the province. Where the recorded flows are regulated or have large human consumption, the natural flows are reconstructed using sophisticated computations and flow models (called "flow naturalization techniques").