Water supply and urban growth in southern Alberta: constraint or catalyst?

Abstract

Within a century of first settlement, irrigation agriculture has expanded in semi-arid southern Alberta to occupy some 20% of the area's farmland, consuming approximately 34% of all water consumed in Canada. Massive public-funded water supply management schemes have been justified by successive provincial governments on the basis of the great economic benefits created by irrigation agriculture. This paper demonstrates that irrigation agriculture has contributed very little to the provincial economy, and to the growth of urban communities in southern Alberta. Irrigation agriculture has, however, caused severe environmental degradation, and constrained available water supplies for other uses, creating an artificial water shortage in southern Alberta.