GROUNDWATER SCIENCE + SUSTAINABILITY
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    • in British Columbia
    • globally
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    • through stories
  • Research
    • research topics
    • publications
    • data
  • Teaching
    • Resources for instructors
    • How and what I teach
  • home
  • About
    • mission
    • equity, diversity, inclusion
    • people
    • prospective people
  • Engaging
    • in British Columbia
    • globally
    • with media
    • through stories
  • Research
    • research topics
    • publications
    • data
  • Teaching
    • Resources for instructors
    • How and what I teach

The highest form of research is essentially play.​

We like to play in four different but interrelated sandboxes:
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Global groundwater systems

How does groundwater interact with other parts of the Earth System and what are the global dimensions of groundwater resources? Water science and management is often local in scale, but our research goes big to highlight how groundwater is important across all scales. Globally, we proposed a new approach to the water planetary boundary and explored how groundwater interacts with climate and  contributes to oceans.
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Environmental flows and streamflow depletion

How can we use groundwater to support food and water security while not compromising the health of aquatic and riparian ecosystems? We have developed a new approach for defining the role of groundwater in environmental flows and a new tool for predicting the impact of pumping on streamflow, all to protect sensitive groundwater-dependent ecosystems.
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Groundwater sustainability

How can groundwater sustainability be defined and applied in different hydrologic and political settings? Our interdisciplinary research on this grand challenge integrates groundwater science and cutting-edge sustainability concepts such as strong sustainability, backcasting, multi-generational goal setting and adaptive management. We've  quantified groundwater footprints globally, as well as for nations and  aquifers. Check out this recent review of groundwater sustainability, which is the foundation of the global groundwater sustainability statement.
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Fault-zone hydrogeology

How does the complex geology of fault zones impact groundwater flow and discharge? Our interdisciplinary review and research at local sites in Canada and the United States has highlighted the importance of combining structural geology and hydrogeology to unravel how structures control subsurface flow and the distribution of hot springs.

The highest form of research is essentially play comes from Scarfe (1972), not Einstein.
Image sources: thenounproject's: earth, sustainability, river and thrust fault.