The North Saskatchewan drainage region, which includes the City of Edmonton, is used heavily for agricultural production. Arable land and natural land for pasture made up 65.4% of the landscape in 2011, followed by natural and semi-natural area (31.5%) and built-up area (3.1%).
The drainage region had the third highest fertilizer application area in the country at 44,992 km2, accounting for 60% of the region’s arable land in 2011.
The population was 1,559,613 in 2011—5% of Canada’s total—with a population density of 10.9 persons/km2. Population was up 85% compared to 841,004 in 1971.
Surface freshwater intake from thermal-electric production, drinking water plants, manufacturing, mining and irrigation was 947.4 million m3 in 2013.
The average annual water yield was a relatively low 10.4 km3 over the period 1971 to 2013. The water yield per unit area was 0.07 m3/m2, the fourth lowest in the country. Snow and ice melt contributes to summer flows—the monthly water yield peaks in July. Evapotranspiration was 0.34 m3/m2, compared to 0.23 m3/m2 at the Canada level.
Sources of nitrogen and phosphorus residuals in the environment include fertilizer application, livestock and poultry production, as well as industrial emissions. In 2014, 127,820 tonnes of nitrogen-containing substances were emitted to air, land and water by industrial facilities. These emissions accounted for 17% of direct industrial emissions across Canada.
Turbidity levels of source water for drinking water plants were among the highest in the country at 9.0 nephelometric turbidity units (NTU) in 2013.
