The Municipal Chair in Sustainable Water Management, which is backed by the Fédération québécoise des municipalités (FQM), focuses on municipal infrastructure research. It aims to strengthen and formalize INRS’ partnership with Quebec municipalities so that the research projects can effectively meet municipalities’ most pressing needs.
Chairholder
Sophie Duchesne, INRS
Background
The Municipal Chair in Sustainable Water Management is an INRS initiative created in February 2024. It is supported by the Fédération québécoise des municipalités (FQM).
This partnership chair will bring municipalities together to identify common research priorities related to municipal water infrastructures. This, in turn, will lead to joint research projects for which funding applications will be submitted.
Thanks to this community of practice, municipalities will be able to share their successes and best practices in water management.
Objectives
The research projects run by and for municipalities as part of the Chair will provide support in areas like :
- Infrastructure sustainability and efficiency
- Sustainability of drinking water sources
- Water quality in the rivers on their territory
- Flood risk reduction
The Chair will ensure that research results are implemented in a shared, effective manner. The Chair will also train highly qualified personnel to fill open positions in Quebec municipalities, equipping professionals with graduate degrees in water sciences and unique, cutting-edge expertise.
About the chairholder
Sophie Duchesne has been a professor at INRS’ Eau Terre Environnement Research Centre since 2007. She leads research projects on sustainable stormwater management in urban environments and the management of drinking water systems. Professor Duchesne is the scientific head of the Hydraulic Management of Water Distribution Systems Laboratory at INRS. She is also a regular researcher at the Quebec Water Research Centre (CentrEau) and a research member of the Réseau inondations InterSectoriel du Québec (RIISQ). Finally, she is the Institutional Vice-President and member of the Board of Directors of the Centre d’expertise et de recherche en infrastructures urbaines (CERIU).
Any municipality interested in joining is welcome to do so.
Partners and collaborators
The FQM has signed on as the Chair’s main partner for a five-year period. The City of Laval has also joined as a regular partner.
The Fédération québécoise des municipalités brings together more than 1,000 local municipalities and regional county municipalities. Its mission is to defend the political and economic interests of Quebec’s regions by providing not-for-profit services that allow them to take care of all of their current and future responsibilities. One of these areas of expertise is the engineering and infrastructure department, which provides municipalities with professional and technical support. In line with the services it offers its members in the field of water infrastructure management, the FQM, with the financial support of the Quebec government, decided to become the main partner of the Municipal Chair to ensure that the issues faced by municipalities of all sizes are taken into consideration.
