ID: 1939
Presenting Author: Nathalie Gravel
Session: 762 - FD2 Innovating to restore public trust; Transforming practices and tools to inform audiences
Status: pending
As Quebec City’s drinking water source, Lake Saint-Charles suffers eutrophication driven by poor governance and misinformation, prompting calls to recognize and protect its human-shaped land
Lake Saint-Charles, the main drinking water source for Quebec City, is undergoing rapid ecological decline due to the persistent myth of water abundance. In less than a decade, the lake has shifted from mesotrophic to meso-eutrophic, marked by invasive aquatic plants and toxic cyanobacterial blooms. Despite repeated warnings from scientists, watershed organizations, and citizens, preventive measures remain slow and fragmented. Sewage overflows from nearby treatment plants and governance that favors costly curative responses over sustainable solutions have worsened the crisis. Political inaction, misinformation, and lack of transparency have hindered public recognition of the lake’s degradation as a pressing issue.
This presentation critically examines water governance in Quebec, revealing the disconnect between conservation rhetoric and local decision-making. It argues that recognizing Lake Saint-Charles’ human-shaped landscapes is essential to redefining governance. Drawing on the Smart City Garden pilot project, it proposes a participatory model rooted in ecological co-design, transparency, and citizen engagement. By integrating landscape awareness with community-driven solutions, the project offers a transformative approach to water management—one that repositions the lake not just as a resource, but as a shared civic space demanding collective stewardship.
Nathalie Gravel is an associate professor of geography at Université Laval, specializing in rural development and environmental governance, with postdoctoral training from
Yale.
Coauthor 1: Ramatoulaye Kane
Coauthor 2: Gadiaga Yankhouba