Environmental & Water Resources Engineering

As the Associate Director of the Water Science, Technology & Policy Research Group, William B. Anderson collaborates with the group’s Director, Monica B. Emelko, to develop and manage a variety of drinking water associated research initiatives. Our group’s goals are to understand fundamental water science, investigate and promote innovative emerging treatment technologies, and lead in the development of policy that is impactful for industry and society. Professor Anderson has been immersed in the field of interdisciplinary drinking water treatment research for 40 years.

He served on the NSF International Joint Committee on Drinking Water Treatment Units for 12 years during which time he co-chaired a task group which developed a new standard for pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and endocrine disrupting compounds (NSF 401). He also contributed to the development of standards for the removal of the cyanotoxin, microcystin-LR, by activated carbon adsorption and for the perfluorinated compounds including perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS). Additionally, he represented academia on stakeholders and reviewers groups charged with the revision and update of the Ontario Ministry of the Environment ‘Design Guidelines for Drinking-Water Systems’ and the ‘Optimization Guidance Manual for Drinking Water Systems’ manual.

Professor Anderson has various research interests that relate to source water characterization, drinking water treatment, and the protection of human health. Currently, he is investigating detection and removal technologies for pathogens, toxins, and chemicals in drinking water.

William (Bill) K. Annable is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He is affiliated with Professional Engineers of Ontario, the Association of Professional Geoscientist of Ontario, the American Geophysical Union, the Geological Society of America, and the International Association of Hydrogeologists.

He has been researching the hydraulic, sediment transport and morphological characteristics of rivers for over the past 18 years. In addition, he has been designing, monitoring and supervising the construction of natural channel restoration projects throughout North America - totalling over 2,500km of streams and rivers studied and over 180km of restored river channels.

Professor Annable’s recent research has focused on the sediment transport characteristics of urban river systems and how changes in hydrology affect habitat dynamics. He is specifically interested in river restoration, rehabilitation and aquatic habitat improvements. The study of basin scale isotope hydrology and sediment transport of non-point source contaminants, along with conducting numerical and field studies of groundwater surface water interaction and karst hydrology are other interests of his as well. Additionally, Professor Annable conducts field and numerical modelling studies on urban river mechanics, hydraulics and hydrology.

His current sources of research funding are from NSERC, CFI, EPA, Water Districts, Municipalities, and DFO.

Dr. Nandita Basu is a Professor of Global Water Sustainability and Ecohydrology, jointly appointed between the Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Waterloo. She is an Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Hydrology, Director of the Collaborative Water Program at the University of Waterloo, elected Member of the Royal Society College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists, and an Earth Leadership Fellow.
 
Nandita Basu is internationally renowned in the fields of water sustainability and ecohydrology, where her team has laid critical groundwork to address both fundamental science and applied management questions on nutrient pollution in anthropogenic landscapes. She is an environmental engineer, who uses data science, process modeling and remote sensing to explore how climate, land use, and management impacts surface and groundwater quality across agricultural, urban and forested landscapes, and from watershed to the regional and global scales. Her research leverages these insights to develop watershed management strategies that maximizes environmental benefits without significant economic costs.
 
National and international collaboration has extended the reach and impact of Dr. Basu’s work. She leads a $2.4M Tri-agency project that connects hydrologists, biogeochemists, ecologists and economists with stakeholders across Canada to develop approaches for managing the water quality of lake basins. She co-leads a $1.7M EU Joint Programming Initiative project to expand this work globally, connecting Waterloo with academic experts from Sweden, Denmark and Portugal. Dr. Basu has served on many advisory and technical committees, including the International Joint Commissions’ Science Advisory Board – Science Priority Committee, established under the Canada-USA Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.

James R. Craig is an Associate Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Waterloo.
 
Prof. Craig’s expertise is in numerical and analytical modelling of water resource systems, with a focus on surface water hydrology, regional-scale groundwater flow, and subsurface heat transfer/phase change simulation. His research program bridges the divide between the fundamental and practical, with the goal of developing more robust, accurate, and practical modelling approaches that will be used to guide water management, operations, and policy. The core of Prof. Craig’s research program, which advances the toolkit of hybrid analytical-numerical methods to address a diverse range of problems, complements his collaborative research and publications across a variety of fields, including discontinuous permafrost hydrology, carbon sequestration, geothermal loop design, infiltration theory, and oil sands remediation. Prof. Craig is the lead software developer of the open-source Raven Hydrological Modelling framework (Raven) [raven.uwaterloo.ca], which has been adopted by organizations across Canada for water resources assessment, reservoir inflow forecasting, and flood forecasting.
 
Prof. Craig has earned multiple awards for research, service, and teaching, including the Ontario Early Researcher Award in 2011, the Faculty of Engineering Distinguished Performance Award in 2012, the Sandford Fleming Foundation Teaching Excellence Award in 2014, and the UW Engineering Society Teaching Excellence

Monica B. Emelko is a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Canada Research Chair in Water Science, Technology & Policy. She is also the Director of the Water Science, Technology & Policy Group. She is also cross-appointed in Biology, Geography & Environmental Management, Systems Design Engineering, and the School of Planning.

Professor Emelko's research interests focus on drinking water supply and treatment, source water protection, microbial risk assessment, public health policy, and stormwater and advanced wastewater treatment. She focuses on sustainable technology development and deployment, integrated resource management, climate change adaptation, and the protection of public health. Professor Emelko’s research is currently funded by many organizations including the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the Water Research Foundation, and Alberta Innovates as well as several industry and government partners.

She co-leads the Southern Rockies Watershed Project team, which evaluates the initial effects of natural disturbance by wildfire on hydrology, water quality, and aquatic ecology; and monitors the recovery of these values in front range headwater streams of the high water yielding eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Professor Emelko's team was among the first cited by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for identifying climate change-associated threats from wildfire to drinking water security through water quality and treatability. Her ongoing work involves active participation from over 3 dozen utilities and conservation authorities across Canada and the United States. Professor Emelko has served as a technical advisor to the U.S. National Academies of Engineering, Science, and Medicine as well as several federal and provincial/state agencies in Canada, the United States, and Australia regarding regulatory development related to drinking water treatment, source water protection, public health policy, and integrated resource management.

Bruce MacVicar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He leads the River Hydraulics Research Group in the department.
 His research interests lie in river engineering, understanding the effect of urbanisation on sediment transport, studying the hydrodynamics of straight pools, and quantifying wood transport in rivers.

Professor MacVicar conducts research on hydraulic engineering and fluvial geomorphology, while placing a particular emphasis on river dynamics. His research uses field measurements, physical experiments and computer simulations to understand various aspects of river processes such as sediment transport and flow turbulence. He ultimately aims to improve engineering designs, protect and restore critical habitats in rivers and floodplains, and preserve the integrity of these complex systems.

Wayne J. Parker is a Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department and is cross-appointed to the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Waterloo. Professor Parker is affiliated with Professional Engineers of Ontario (PEO), the Water Environment Association of Ontario, the Water Environment Federation, the International Water Association, and the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers.

Professor Parker’s research interests include nutrient recovery from wastewaters, anaerobic membrane bioreactors for wastewater and sludge treatment, understanding the fate of emerging contaminants in wastewater systems, planning the pre-treatment of sludge for enhanced digestion, and understanding advanced sludge digestion processes. His recent sources of research funding are from NSERC, Envirosim, GE, Canadian Water Network, Ontario Research Fund, Environment Canada, and the Ontario Ministry of Environment.

In addition to his research work, Professor Parker has also received several awards such as the 1994 Water Environment Federation Willem Rudolfs Medal for Industrial Wastewater Research, the 1997 Petro-Canada Young Innovator Award, and the 2002 Province of Ontario’s Premier’s Research Excellence Award. He also received the 2003 Carleton University Research Achievement Award, and the Editor’s Award from the ASCE Journal of Environmental Engineering in 2004.
 Wayne Parker is a member of the Waterloo Centre for Microbial Research

Anh Pham is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He obtained a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from Hanoi University of Technology (Vietnam), and M.S. and PhD degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley (USA). Prior to joining the University of Waterloo, Prof. Pham was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carleton University (Jan 2015- Dec 2018), and a Postdoctoral Associate at Duke University (2012 – 2014). His research group applies aquatic chemistry and geochemistry principles and employs analytical chemistry tools to investigate contaminant fate and transformation. Prof. Pham's current research focus is per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

John Quilty is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Waterloo and the Sinnathamby Professor in AI for Sustainable Solutions.
 
His research seeks to address the issues of nonlinearity, multiscale change, and uncertainty in hydrological and water resources forecasting. In this regard, Prof. Quilty has introduced new and computationally efficient information-theoretic methods for nonlinear input variable selection considering uncertainty, developed a set of best practices for wavelet-based forecasting of multiscale processes, and proposed a multiscale stochastic data-driven forecasting framework that accounts for uncertainty in each stage of the forecast design, a particularly useful method for creating ensemble forecast systems that can simultaneously perform ensemble member selection and weighting.
 
He is currently pursuing three research areas that explore: i) new AI, machine learning, and deep learning approaches with a focus on computational efficiency; ii) emerging uncertainty estimation methods (e.g., for input data, input variable selection, parameter, model structure, model output); and iii) coupling physical, conceptual, and data-driven models in addition to auxiliary input sources such as Numerical Weather Predictions, large scale climate indicators, remote sensing, etc. to improve hydrological and water resources forecast accuracy and reliability.
 
An underlying goal of Prof. Quilty’s research program is to create a unified data-driven framework drawing on Big Data to optimize, plan, and manage urban water resources systems (water supply, wastewater, and stormwater systems), and automatically adapt to environmental and policy changes in the face of uncertainty.
 
Prior to joining the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Prof. Quilty worked as a Research Associate at McGill University where he focused on new AI-based methods for hydrological forecasting. At the same time, he worked as a Water Meter Operations Engineer at the City of Ottawa where he focused on: project/program management, developing water consumption forecasting models for the purpose of establishing water, wastewater, and storm water rates, analysis of water consumption profiles for design, operational, and billing concerns, water meter right sizing, and the development of specifications and standards for water supply system components.

Dr. Rebecca K. Saari is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Waterloo. Dr. Saari studies the consequences of climate change and climate policy on human health and environmental inequality. She has 11 years of post-graduate experience in air pollution and air quality modelling at the University of Toronto (2), AECOM (3), Environment and Climate Change Canada (1), and MIT (5). As a professional air quality engineer in Ontario, she completed projects in seven Canadian provinces and territories. Dr. Saari has employed economic models, emissions models, atmospheric chemical transport models, and health response models to assess the costs and co-benefits of climate policy, energy policy, and transportation policy. She has been invited to speak at Harvard University, the University of Toronto, Carleton University, North Carolina State University, and the University of Washington. Her work has been published in Nature Climate Change, and covered in over 16 news outlets including CBC, NBC, and the New York Times. She directly informs policy through invited presentations to state-level policymakers and the U.S. EPA Climate Change Division, and she was cited in an amicus brief submitted by leading climate scientists to the D.C. Circuit Court evaluation of the U.S. Clean Power Plan – the Obama Administration's centrepiece climate policy.

Bryan Tolson started at the University of Waterloo in 2005 and was promoted to Professor in 2020. His research interests include the field of environmental and water resources systems analysis, the development and testing of heuristic algorithms for efficient single- and multiple-objective optimization, and uncertainty estimation as well as risk-based or probabilistic assessment of environmental and water resources systems. These research interests have been applied to a variety of application areas including hydrologic model calibration, water distribution network calibration and optimal design and Great Lakes water level management.