Conflict analysis on water use and oil sands development in the Athabasca River

Author

Kuang, Hanbin ; Kilgour, D. Marc ; Hipel, Keith W.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Syst. Design Eng., Univ. of WaterlooWaterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada

fYear

2014

fDate

5-8 Oct. 2014

Firstpage

2917

Lastpage

2921

Abstract

A conflict over water use and oil sands development in the Athabasca River Basin is modelled, and a stability analysis is carried out based on the Graph Model for Conflict Analysis. Oil sands require a great deal of water to extract bitumen, which may lead to insufficient water supply to the downstream area. Moreover, inappropriate waste water disposal can have serious effects on local fresh water resources. In order to balance industrial development and environmental protection, the conflict among the Alberta government, oil sands companies, and non-governmental organizations are analyzed, and insights and reasonable suggestions are provided.

Keywords

river pollution; rivers; wastewater; water quality; water resources; Alberta government; Athabasca river basin; conflict analysis; environmental protection; graph model; industrial development; local fresh water resources; nongovernmental organizations; oil sands companies; oil sands development; stability analysis; waste water disposal; water use; Companies; Government; Hydrocarbons; Industries; Investment; Rivers; Water resources; Conflict Analysis; GMCR II; oil sands development; water protection;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Systems, Man and Cybernetics (SMC), 2014 IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

San Diego, CA

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/SMC.2014.6974373

Filename

6974373