Bedard-Haughn, A. 2009. Managing excess water in Canadian prairie soils: A review. Can. J. Soil Sci. 89: 157Á168. ''Excess water'' conditions develop when a soil is unable to transmit water, leading to the onset of saturated conditions harmful to soils and crops. Negative agricultural impacts include reduced trafficability, physical damage to crops under hypoxic or anoxic conditions, increased salinity or sodicity, reduced nutrient availability and uptake, and increased incidence of weeds and pests. There are two main objectives in managing landscapes prone to excess water, both of which must consider soil and landform characteristics. The first is to maximize infiltration and conductivity through tillage and residue management. The second is to remove water from the soil profile as quickly as possible through drainage or the adoption of high water use plants such as alfalfa (Medicago sativa), which increase water losses through transpiration. Changes to the overall cropping system can also be made, including selecting crops and forages that have shown reduced sensitivity to excess water, applying seed treatments that encourage the development of water-tolerant traits, timing fertilizer application to correspond with maximum plant uptake, and incorporating high water use crops into the rotation. Recent work from Australia suggests that management of excess water requires a multi-disciplinary approach; however, little research has been done on this problem in the semiarid to sub-humid Canadian Prairies. e´duite des sols, les de´gaˆts aux cultures re´sultant de conditions hypoxiques ou anoxiques, une plus grande salinite´ou sodicite´, une re´duction de la disponibilite´ou de l'absorption des e´le´ments nutritifs et la prolife´ration des mauvaises herbes et des ravageurs. L'ame´nagement des paysages qui peuvent connaıˆtre des e´pisodes de saturation poursuit deux grands objectifs, chacun devant prendre en compte les proprie´te´s du sol et du relief. Le premier consiste a`maximiser l'infiltration et la conductivite´en travaillant le sol et en ge´rant les re´sidus; le second consiste a`retirer l'eau du profil du sol aussi vite que possible par le drainage ou la culture de plantes ne´cessitant beaucoup d'eau, telle la luzerne (Medicago sativa), en vue d'accroıˆtre les pertes par transpiration. On peut aussi apporter des changements aux syste`mes agricoles, notamment choisir des cultures vivrie`res et fourrage`res moins sensibles a`un sol gorge´d'eau, traiter les semences pour favoriser le de´veloppement d'une tole´rance aux sols humides, fertiliser au moment ou`la capacite´d'absorption des plantes atteint son maximum et inte´grer des cultures utilisant beaucoup d'eau aux assolements. Des travaux re´cemment effectue´s en Australie laissent croire que la gestion des exce´dents d'eau exige une approche multidisciplinaire, ne´anmoins, on a effectueṕ eu de recherches sur le sujet dans la zone semi-aride a`subhumide des Prairies canadiennes.