Transitions to unconventional fossil fuels may result in significant impacts to land and water. This review describes the governance challenges and successes related to land and water impacts of oil sands development in Alberta, resulting in four key conclusions. First, the province of Alberta appears to have developed robust systems for governance of impacts that are relatively easy to predict and measure over short timescales, such as water use. However, it has been less successful in developing governance mechanisms that deal with more complicated and subtle tasks such as those concerning cumulative effects, landscape fragmentation and water quality. Second, there are large variations in management on crown and aboriginal lands. Development on land surrounding Aboriginal territory may infringe upon constitutionally protected Aboriginal and Treaty rights and requires consultation with Aboriginal communities. Third, though impacts from oil sands development can be large, it is important to understand them in relative sense, particularly for water use. Looking across the whole province, agricultural water use has resulted in degraded watersheds in the southern portions of the province where water is scarce, leading to the emergence of water markets. By contrast, water withdrawn for oil sands development is from watersheds that do not have similar water constraints. Finally, there is large technological potential for mitigating water impacts. Whether emerging technologies are used will depend on if water policies can keep at the same pace as technological development. This review demonstrates that governance can be challenging where impacts are not easily quantified. One key recommendation is to ensure independent scientific research is undertaken to resolve disputes surrounding the magnitude of impacts, such as changes to water quality. Such research can support the development of governance systems. This review may be used more broadly to develop policies and regulations in other regions that are experiencing similar environmental impacts from growing unconventional fossil fuel production.