The Water Innovation Centre is a multiyear strategic initiative housed at IISD's head office in Winnipeg, Canada. The centre serves as the hub for the development of scientifically defensible watershed management processes and best practices.

The goal is to have sustainable water management and government policy that yields long-term benefits to Manitobans. IISD aims to foster a sustainable development vision for the Lake Winnipeg watershed as well as demonstrate and communicate the tools and practices that will realize this vision. In this work, IISD analyzed land use, hydrology, economies, policies, legislation and best practices to summarize and identify priorities and approaches for optimizing regional management in this watershed.

An example of an innovative approach developed and implemented is the watershed bioeconomy approach currently being replicated, tested and scaled up in parts of the Lake Winnipeg basin.

In the current phase of the Water Innovation Centre's work, IISD is expanding its efforts on Lake Winnipeg basin management to approach strategic management of the Nelson-Churchill river basin system of which the Lake Winnipeg basin is a part. Once again, the approach is to synthesize biophysical, socioeconomic, policy and other relevant information to clarify and recommend innovative approaches for watershed management that are sustainable.