David Rudolph, PEng

David Rudolph carries out research in groundwater management with a focus on innovative ways to monitor water resources in the face of changing land use and climate.

Professor Rudolph was named the 2013 Henry Darcy Distinguished Lecturer in Ground Water Science by the US National Groundwater Association, one of the most prestigious career awards in this field.

• Groundwater resource management, including protection of public drinking water wells, Beneficial Management Practices (BMPs) at the local and regional levels, and the impact of agricultural land use on groundwater quality
• Groundwater flow and contaminant transport modeling, specifically in massive and macroporous media
• Hydrology of the shallow subsurface including flow and solute transport behaviour in unsaturated porous media
• Threats to Aquatic Ecosystems and their Interaction
• Contamination & Remediation: Water, Soil, Air
• Increasingly Complex Water Challenges
• Protection of Surface and Groundwater Resources
• Sustainable Water Use and Management
• Real-time monitoring of surface and groundwater flow and water quality

Professor Rudolph and his team are currently working to develop a ”smart watershed” data platform network that captures and analyzes near real-time information across an entire subwatershed within the Grand River Watershed in Southern Ontario. The network is designed to respond to real-time events like rainstorms and floods to provide much needed water management data to scientists, managers and policy makers. The project is conducted in collaboration with SOLINST Canada Ltd., IBM Canada, and the Southern Ontario Water Consortium, a multi-institutional consortium that supports capacity for the development and testing of innovations in watershed management. Professor Rudolph has also studied how the nature of groundwater quality has been impacted from agricultural land-use practices, at both local and regional scales, with a specific focus on nitrate and microbial indicator species. His field experiments and findings have helped local municipalities save millions of dollars in avoided water treatment plant costs.

• 1989 PhD Earth Sciences (Hydrogeology) University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON
• 1985 MSc Earth Sciences (Hydrogeology) University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON
• 1980 BSc in Engineering, (Geological) University of Manitoba, Winnepeg, MB
• Registered Professional Engineer in Ontario (PEO)

• 2013 Henry Darcy Distinguished Lecturer in Ground Water Science, National Ground Water Association
• 2010 M. King Hubbard Award, National Ground Water Association
• 2002 Hydrogeology Departmental Merit Award, NRCan
• 2002 Earth Sciences Sector Merit Award, NRCan
• 1986 NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship (Ph.D. 1986-1988)
• 1983 NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship (M.Sc. 1983-1985)
• 1980 University Gold Medal in Geological Engineering

• Principal of Waterloo Hydrogeology Advisors Inc.
• Board Member, National Association of Ground Water Scientists and Engineers (NGWA)
• Liaison for the Geological Society of America with the National Ground Water Association
• Associate Editor for the journal Ground Water
• Associate Editor for the journal Hydrogeology Journal
• Registered Professional Engineer in Ontario (PEO)

• Member of American Geophysical Union, Canadian Geophysical Union, National Ground Water Association, of Geological Society of America and the International Association of Hydrogeologists
• Member of Ontario Provincial Advisory Committee on the Nutrient Management Act and Regulations
• Member of Ontario Technical Experts Committee on Source Water Protection

• EARTH 458 - Physical Hydrogeology
  • Taught in 2020
• EARTH 654 - Groundwater Research Management
  • Taught in 2019, 2023
• EARTH 671 - Field Methods in Hydrogeology
  • Taught in 2019

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

• Rudolph, D.L., 2014. Groundwater quality within the agricultural landscape: Assessing the performance of nutrient BMPs. Ground Water Mon. and Remediation, 35, no.1, Winter 2015, 21-22.
• Rudolph, D.L., Devlin, J. F. and Bekeris, L., 2015. Challenges and a strategy for agricultural BMP monitoring and remediation of nitrate contamination in unconsolidated aquifers. Ground Water Mon. and Remediation, 35, no.1, Winter 2015, 97-109.
• Critchley, K., Rudolph, D. L., Devlin, J.F. and Schillig, P. C., 2014. Stimulating In situ Denitrification in an Aerobic, Highly Permeable Municipal Drinking Water Aquifer. J. of Cont. Hydrology, 171, 66-80.
• Frind, E. O., Russell, H. A. J., Rudolph, D. L. and Sharpe, D. R., 2014. The Waterloo Moraine: Water, science and policy. Canadian Water Resources Journal / Revue canadienne des ressources hydriques, 39:2, 85-87, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07011784.2014.914793.
• Sousa, M.R., Frind, E. O., and Rudolph, D. L., 2014. Threats to groundwater resources in urbanizing watersheds: The Waterloo Moraine and beyond. Can. Wat. Res. Journal, Vol. 39, number 2, 193-208.

• Multilevel Waveguide for Profiling Water Content and Bulk Electrical Conductivity Using Time Domain Reflectometry. Official Application Number: 9406916.8, Official Filing Date: April 7, 1994 Inventors: P.A. Ferre, D.L. Rudolph, R.G. Kachanoski

• August 14, 2014 Monitoring the watershed in real-time
• May 8, 2014 Water Institute Symposium 2014: The Future of Groundwater Research
• March 7, 2013 Dr. David Rudolph named 2013 Darcy Lecturer!