Climate Change Impacts

Climate change and climate variability impact all components of the hydrological cycle. Our research focuses on impacts of climate change on water, encompassing changes in groundwater recharge and storage, streamflow and interactions with groundwater. Projects have been carried out in mountainous regions and coastal regions and combine field studies and numerical modeling to further our understanding of the physical processes that control the response characteristics of these systems due to trends in climate and extreme weather events, such as drought and atmospheric rivers.

1. Groundwater Responses to Extreme Climate
2. Reconstructing Groundwater Levels Using Tree Ring Widths (see also Hunter, PhD Thesis)
3. Snow Drought and Streamflow Drought (see also Dierauer, PhD Thesis)
4. see also Aquifer-Stream Connectivity below

Water Security and Risk Assessment

Source water protection strategies are ideally focused where the greatest amount of harm reduction can occur. This process of risk management requires an assessment of the spatial variability of risk to water. Our previous research developed new approaches for assesing the susceptibility of aquifers to contamination in fractured rock environments, and applying local scale indices for vulnerability assessment. We developed a Water Security Risk Framework, and applied the framework to map risk to groundwater quality from surface sources of chemical contaminants. More recently, we developed risk assessment approaches for coastal aquifers, specifically targeting climate change hazards, as well as risks to water security in areas experiencing rapid development, such as Northeast British Columbia's shale gas development. In addition, we are carrying out field studies on the impacts of pumping on streamflow (see Aquifer-Stream Connectivity below).

1. Risk Assessment Framework for Coastal Bedrock Aquifers
2. Storm Surge Risk in Coastal Aquifers
3. Risk to Fractured Rock Aquifers
4. Groundwater Quality Risk Assessment, Langley, BC
5. Water Security Guidance

Shale Gas Development Impacts in North East BC

Over several years we conducted hydrogeological studies in Northeast British Columbia (NEBC) to assess various impacts of shale gas development on water resources. The research was funded in part by the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (Kyoto, Japan) as part of a larger circum-Pacific project on water-energy nexus issues, and the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS)

1. Risk to Water Security in North East BC
2. Vulnerability of Headwater Catchments to Climate Change and Water Use (Dierauer, PhD Thesis: Chapter 5)
3. Groundwater Resources in Buried Valley Aquifers (Morgan, MSc Thesis)
4. Mapping the Likelihood of Spring Occurrence (Bystron, MSc Thesis)
5. Deep-Aquifer Wastewater Disposal (Simons, MSc Thesis)
6. Wastewater Regulations Database - Notte, C. and Allen, D.M. (2015) Database of wastewater-related regulations across North American shale gas basin jurisdictions (available on SFU Radar data repository)
7. Modelling Wastewater Leaks and Spills (Rosales-Ramirez, MSc Thesis, 2020)
8. Role of Regional Groundwater Flow on Slope Stability (Dandurand, MSc Thesis).

Aquifer-Stream Connectivity

An ongoing project being carried out in collaboration with the BC Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations & Rural Development.

Phase 1 Field Investigation Report

Stream Vulnerability Report

Phase 2 Field Investigation Report

Bertrand Watershed Groundwater Modeling Report

Steele Park, Langley, BC, May, 2019

Steele Park, Langley, BC, Aug 2019