History, Overview and Governance of Environmental Monitoring in the Oil Sands Region of Alberta, Canada.

Abstract

Over the past decades, concerns regarding the local and cumulative impacts of oil sands development have been increasing. These concerns reflect the industry s emissions, land disturbance, water use and the resulting impacts to Indigenous Rights. Effective environmental management is essential to address and ultimately manage these concerns. Like other large monitoring initiatives, a series of ambient regional monitoring programs in the oil sands region have struggled with scope and governance. In the last ten years, monitoring has evolved from a regulatory driven exercise implemented by industry into a focused, collaborative, multi-stakeholder program that attempts to integrate rigorous science from a multitude of disciplines and ways of knowing. Monitoring in the region continues to grapple with governance, data management, scope, and effective analysis and reporting. This special issue, A Decade of Research and Monitoring in the Oil Sands Region of Alberta, Canada, provides a series of critical reviews which synthesize ten years of published monitoring results to identify patterns of consistent ecological responses or effects, significant gaps in knowledge and recommendations for improved monitoring, assessment and management of the region. The special issue considered over 300 peer-reviewed papers and represents the first integrated critical review of the published literature from the region. This introductory paper of the special issue introduces the history of ambient environmental monitoring in the oil sands region and discusses historic and ongoing challenges with the environmental monitoring effort. While significant progress has been made in areas of governance, expanded geographical scope, and inclusion of Indigenous communities in monitoring in the region, significant issues remain regarding a lack of integrated reporting on environmental conditions, public access to data, and continuity of monitoring efforts over time. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.