Bruce MacVicar, PEng

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.

• Rivers

• Sediment transport

• Turbulence

• Floods

• Complex systems

• River restoration

• Fluvial geomorphology

• Urban stormwater management

• Water Resources Engineering

• 2006, Doctorate Geography, Universite de Montreal, Canada

• 1999, Master of Applied Science Civil Engineering, University of British Columbia, British Columbia

• 1996, Bachelor of Applied Science Water Resources Engineering, University of Guelph, Ontario

• CIVE 382 - Hydrology and Open Channel Flow
  • Taught in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2025
• CIVE 583 - Design of Urban Water Systems
  • Taught in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
• CIVE 682 - Free Surface Hydraulics
  • Taught in 2023
• CIVE 770 - Topics in Environmental Engineering
  • Taught in 2021
• ENVE 382 - Hydrology and Open Channel Flow
  • Taught in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
• ENVE 583 - Design of Urban Water Systems
  • Taught in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• Weng H, CM Yeum, D Robinson, B MacVicar (2024) Automated Registration of Ground 3D Point Cloud Data for Individual Buildings, A. Francis et al. (Eds.): Advances in Information Technology in Civil and Building Engineering, (ICCCBE 2024), LNCE 629, pp. 626–639, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-87364-5_52

• Abedin S, B MacVicar (2025) Framework for stochastic urban flood hazard mapping using coupled and industry-standard hydrologic and hydraulic models, Environmental Modelling and Software, Volume 193(9), 106632, 10.1016/j.envsoft.2025.106632.

• Hasan F, CM Yeum, H Weng, B MacVicar (2025) “An Occlusion-Free Multi-View Building Facade Feature Reconstruction”, IEEE International Conference on Advanced Robotics and its Social Impacts (ARSO), Osaka, Japan, July 17th-19th, 6 pp.

• MacVicar B, N Ibrahim, M Martin, J Sanderson, M Diouri, P Wijeweera, E Zheng. (2025). Accelerating Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) Education for the Next Generation of Engineering Professionals. Proceedings of the Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA); https://doi.org/10.24908/pceea.2025.19528

• Papangelakis, E., T Raso, PA Ashmore, MA Hassan, B MacVicar, (2025), Sediment dynamics of watershed urbanization and river restoration: Insights from 10 years of research in small gravel-bed rivers, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 50(1), e6047, 10.1002/esp.6047

• MacVicar B, D Thompson (2023), The diversity of pool-riffle morphologies, Geomorphology, 440, 108868, 10.1016/j.geomorph.2023.108868.

• Dashtpeyma H, B MacVicar (2023), Plunging flow and coherent turbulent structures in a straight riffle-pool, Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 128, e2022JF007034.

• Ghaffarian H, B MacVicar, B Hortobagyi, Z Zhang, F Robert, L Vaudor, S Petit, H Piégay (2023) Observer-bias and sampling uncertainties in wood flux and volume estimation from Stream-side video monitoring technique, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 48(3) 525-536, 10.1002/esp.5500.

• Papangelakis E, B MacVicar, F Montakhab, P Ashmore (2022) Flow strength and bedload sediment travel distance in gravel bed rivers, Water Resources Research, 58(7), e2022WR032296, 10.1029/2022WR032296

• Papangelakis E, B MacVicar, P Ashmore, D Gingerich, C Bright (2022) Testing a Watershed-Scale Stream Power Index Tool for Erosion Risk Assessment in an Urban River, Journal of Sustainable Water in the Built Environment, Volume 8, Canada.