Bruce MacVicar, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, is interested in complex systems related to alluvial rivers where the form of the river is determined by a complex interplay between flow shear stress and turbulence, sediment transport, vegetation growth, and the development of bedforms like riffle-pools, meanders, and the floodplain. Bruce is also interested in how river systems are affected by landscape and climate processes. For example, urbanization leads to a suite of indicators referred to as the urban stream syndrome and it is not clear how to mitigate these changes given the complex interplay between modification of catchment hydrology, removal of natural heritage features, engineered changes to rivers to accommodate transportation and other urban systems, stormwater management, green infrastructure, and possible restoration actions.
Keywords: hydraulic engineering, fluvial geomorphology, hydrology, river restoration, urban development, climate change, field experiments, lab experiments, agent-based models.
