Data Sources & Methodology
Where HydroScout’s allocation intelligence comes from, and how the spatial and seniority engines turn raw registry data into Section 81 screening output.
1. Authoritative Data Sources
EPA Water Act Authorizations Database
Licence records and water act authorizations published by Alberta Environment and Protected Areas (EPA) — the source of allocation IDs, licensees, priority dates, and licensed volumes.
Government of Alberta HUC-6 Watershed Boundaries
Official provincial Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC-6) spatial geometries covering all six southern Alberta sub-basins: Bow, Oldman, Red Deer, South Saskatchewan Mainstem, Milk River, and Pakowki Lake. Dissolved and reprojected from 10TM (EPSG:3400) to EPSG:4326 for topological routing and regulatory transfer scoping.
Alberta Open Government License (OGL-Alberta)
Spatial datasets published under the Open Government License – Alberta, including ATS legal land descriptions and accompanying geospatial layers.
Alberta Water Act Approvals
Authorizations issued for physical activity, construction, site dewatering, and channel modifications under the Water Act. Spatially indexed to distinguish temporary environmental works from transferable permanent water allocation licences.
2. PostGIS Topological Routing Methodology
HydroScout’s spatial engine runs on a PostGIS topology model to calculate actual hydrologic connectivity rather than simple proximity:
- Point-of-Diversion (POD) Connectivity: Each licence is snapped to its POD on the hydrographic network and connected by topological rather than straight-line links.
- Upstream / Downstream Transfer Feasibility: Directed network routing determines which licences are hydraulically upstream or downstream of a given transfer location, enabling non-impairment screening along the flow path.
- Stream Order Capacity: Strahler stream ordering and reach capacity inform whether a proposed diversion can be physically sustained at the resulting net transferable volume.
3. Seniority & FITFIR Cutoff Scoring
“First in Time, First in Right” (FITFIR) priority numbers are converted into mathematical cutoff scores that rank a licence’s vulnerability to drought curtailment:
- Ultra-Senior and Senior-Low-Risk tiers map to priority dates historically untouched by basin-wide shortage calls.
- Moderate and Critical tiers reflect progressively higher exposure to prior statutory calls on the Bow, Oldman, Red Deer, and South Saskatchewan reaches.
- The resulting FITFIR cutoff distribution models the likelihood that a given licence is curtailed during a recurrence of historical basin calls, exposed directly in the allocation matrix risk-tiers.
4. Update Cadence
HydroScout synchronizes with published regulatory registries on a monthly cycle, aligning allocation records, sub-basin boundaries, and ATS spatial layers with the latest EPA and OGL-Alberta releases. Realtime WSC hydrometric telemetry is fetched independently on each spatial scan for gauge-stage and canal-discharge context.