Roundtable: The Future of the Natural Channels Initiative – Joining CWRA as an Affiliate
Session Description
The Natural Channels Initiative (NCI) has been advancing river science and natural channel design practice in Ontario since the first Natural Channel Systems conference was held in Niagara Falls in 1994. NCI is a group of Canadian water resources professionals dedicated to the restoration and sustainable management of rivers and streams. Over the past three decades, NCI has hosted seven conferences across Southern Ontario to bring together practitioners across various industries, public agencies, academia, and other organizations passionate about river corridors.
While the conference series has been a tremendous success, the NCI as an organization has operated on an ad hoc basis, with momentum that has ebbed and flowed over the years. Recently, the steering committee’s activity between conferences has been limited, relying on a small number of dedicated individuals for organizational continuity. COVID further disrupted plans to formalize the organization’s structure. The time has come to have an honest conversation about NCI’s future.
This roundtable session will provide an overview of NCI’s history and invite conference attendees to discuss two potential paths forward. The first is for NCI to join the Canadian Water Resources Association (CWRA) as an affiliate organization. Previous members of the NCI steering committee approved this pathway in 2019, but momentum was lost during the pandemic. The second option is for NCI to pursue an independent organizational model with its own by-laws and board.
About CWRA
The Canadian Water Resources Association is a national registered charity formed in 1947, and is the only national organization addressing water resources issues across all regions of Canada. CWRA offers a range of services and programs focused on professional development, providing expertise and advice, education, and collaboration. Its membership spans the public, private, and academic sectors, including engineers, hydrologists, geographers, biologists, planners, and academics, a community that overlaps substantially with NCI’s constituency.
CWRA already hosts three affiliate organizations that demonstrate the model’s viability:
- CSHS (Canadian Society for Hydrological Sciences):
An affiliated society whose mission is to promote the science of hydrology and its sound application in effective water management, providing a linkage between hydrological research and practice through training courses, workshops, and collaborative tools such as the CSHShydRology R package. - CANCID (Canadian National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage):
An affiliate that serves as the National Committee for Canada of the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage, stimulating research, development, and technology application for irrigation, drainage, and flood control. - NASH (North American Stream Hydrographers):
A non-profit organization composed of working professionals from industry, government, and academia, focused on the theory and practice of hydrometry, which became an affiliate of the Canadian Water Resources Association in 2022. NASH organizes flow regattas, hydrometry workshops, and certification initiatives.
Each of these affiliates maintains its own identity, executive, and programming while benefiting from CWRA’s national infrastructure, including administrative and operational support, financial backing, membership systems, provincial branch networks, the Canadian Water Resources Journal, and the WaterNews magazine. Affiliates also gain visibility and cross-pollination at CWRA’s annual national conference. The affiliate model provides organizational stability without requiring NCI to build independent administrative capacity from scratch.
Joining CWRA would also allow NCI to extend its reach beyond Ontario. While the Natural Channels conference has historically served an Ontario audience, a CWRA affiliation could promote the initiative to CWRA chapters across all provinces. This is an opportunity that has been endorsed by members of the NCI steering committee.
What We Need from You
The success of this next chapter depends entirely on the willingness of practitioners, researchers, and agency staff to step forward. This roundtable is an opportunity to gauge whether there is sufficient critical mass, in terms of enthusiasm, volunteer commitment, and organizational energy, to formalize NCI as a CWRA affiliate and sustain activity between conferences. We are looking for individuals willing to serve on a founding executive committee, contribute to programming (webinars, workshops, position papers, mentorship), and help define NCI’s mandate and priorities going forward.
If you are passionate about natural channel science and practice in Canada, we want to hear from you. Come prepared to share your vision and, importantly, to volunteer.
For more on CWRA and its affiliate model, visit cwra.org.