The Centre encourages collaborative research, innovation and education spanning traditional water-related disciplines, as well as non-traditional and emerging disciplines. Our interdisciplinary model facilitates the easy transition of new knowledge and innovation into practice. Activities of the centre fall into the following themes: water governance, water use, water resources and water quality.

The unit is available to assist industry, government, and the university community with analytical chemistry problems and analysis.  The unit accommodates the special needs of clients such as analytical method development and specific research projects, both large and small. The ASU also has expertise in remote on-site labs, environmental assessment, and remediation of contaminated sites.

For almost 70 years, researchers and students have gathered at QUBS to conduct leading-edge research and participate in courses spanning ecology, evolution, conservation, geography, and environmental science.

It is situated in a sensitive geological setting and is part of the Salmon River Watershed, a tributary of the Great Lakes. The Station is a result of a Queen’s Alumni donation, and has become a valued teaching and research site for students and faculty. The Kennedy Field Station will feature enhancements that will allow student to participate in hand-on, field-intensive courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The Kennedy station is ideal for water research and education due to a naturalized riverfront, existing environmental instruments, a water control structure and a variety of soil and physical features.

The observatory utilizes an integrated interdisciplinary approach to determine the primary processes within permafrost watersheds and identify their cumulative effects on vegetation and downstream rivers and lakes at multiple spatial and temporal scales. The field program closely coordinates research to model watershed-biogeochemistry in changing permafrost landscapes.

The site contains a variety of natural and anthropogenic stressors and contains comprehensive groundwater instrumentation, weather stations and has been extensively mapped.  This site supports research into the impacts of agricultural activity, climate change and contaminant sensitivity in bedrock aquifers.