The honour gives the Waitaki Irrigators Collective policy manager a travel grant from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust to study water management and beneficial farming practices in Canada.
Ms Soal will visit for four weeks, spending time in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Manitoba and New Brunswick, meeting government representatives, academics, water managers, farmers and others with an interest in irrigation.
She said she would observe research projects and farming systems that sought to improve water quality while improving farm productivity.
''Examples include assessing the community-level costs and benefits of alternative farming techniques for reducing sediment run, complex monitoring systems for diffuse non-point discharges to waterways and management strategies that address the water/energy nexus.
''Canada has some similarities in New Zealand, having abundant freshwater resources and a strong farming sector,'' Ms Soal said.
''However, a growing population and the need to feed a hungry world means that there is going to be increasing pressure placed on those resources, just like in New Zealand.''
The Waitaki Irrigators Collective (WIC) represents the interests of five irrigation schemes and a society of independent irrigators in the lower Waitaki River catchment totalling more than 580 farmers and covering more than 75,000ha.
Collective chairman Fraser McKenzie said the timing of Ms Soal's travel was ideal, as New Zealand was at a critical juncture in freshwater management.
''WIC is very conscious that the work of the Land and Water Forum and the subsequent development of collaborative water management processes needs to be turned into workable solutions for our farmers in the field,'' he said.
''The Canadian examples which Elizabeth will be learning from seek to do just that, and we have much to learn from them.''
Ms Soal said Canada wanted to lead the world in integrated water management through the Canadian Water Network, which linked government, researchers and water users in projects at the catchment level.
''They have also launched the Blue Economy Initiative, whereby Canada as a nation is seeking to unlock the potential of freshwater to drive sustainable economic and social development.''