Water Allocations Compared to Natural Flows: More about the data

Water allocation data are based on the water licences issued under the provincial Water Act. 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").

Please note that this measure does not apply to two small sub-basins in southeast Alberta. Pakowki Lake and Sounding Creek are "internal" drainage basins. As such, they only collect water and do not have an outflowing stream that can be measured in the same way as is done for the other basins.