Bruce MacVicar

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
• Wood jams
• Pool-riffle bedforms
• Stream restoration
• Natural channel design
• Eco-hydraulics
• River engineering
• Fluvial geomorphology
• Urban stormwater management

• 2006, Doctorate, Geography, Universite de Montreal
• 1999, Master of Applied Science, Civil Engineering, University of British Columbia
• 1996, Bachelor of Applied Science, Water Resources Engineering, University of Guelph

• CIVE 682 - Free Surface Hydraulics
  • Taught in 2016, 2018
• ENVE 498 - Seminar
  • Taught in 2016
• GEOE 498 - Seminar
  • Taught in 2016
• ENVE 280 - Fluid Mechanics
  • Taught in 2018, 2019
• CIVE 770 - Topics in Environmental Eng
  • Taught in 2018
• CIVE 382 - Hydrol & Open Channel Flow
  • Taught in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020
• CIVE 583 - Design of Urban Water Systems
  • Taught in 2020
• ENVE 382 - Hydrol & Open Channel Flow
  • Taught in 2020
• ENVE 583 - Design of Urban Water Systems
  • Taught in 2020

• MacVicar, BJ, Good, bad and the ugly: Seasonal filtering and Autoregressive Moving Average (ARMA) models for detecting and replacing spikes in velocimetric profile data, River Flow 2016: Iowa City, USA, July 11-14, 2016, 2016
• MacVicar, Bruce and Chapuis, Margot and Buckrell, Emma and Roy, André, Assessing the Performance of In-Stream Restoration Projects Using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Transponders, Water, 7(10), 2015, 5566 - 5591
• MacVicar, Bruce and Obach, Lana, Shear Stress and Hydrodynamic Recovery over Bedforms of Different Lengths in a Straight Channel, Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, 141(11), 2015
• MacVicar, Bruce and Dilling, Scott and Lacey, Jay, Multi-instrument turbulence toolbox (MITT): Open-source MATLAB algorithms for the analysis of high-frequency flow velocity time series datasets, Computers & Geosciences, 73, 2014, 88 - 98
• Chapuis, Margot and Bright, Christina J and Hufnagel, John and MacVicar, Bruce, Detection ranges and uncertainty of passive Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) transponders for sediment tracking in gravel rivers and coastal environments, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 39(15), 2014, 2109 - 2120

• Currently accepting applications for graduate students