Hydrogeology is an interdisciplinary field of study that integrates geological knowledge with the principles of subsurface fluid flow, contaminant migration, geochemistry, mathematics, and physics in order to understand and protect groundwater resources. Typical problems hydrogeologists are trained to tackle include the search for groundwater supplies, assessment and remediation of soil and groundwater contamination due to industrial, agricultural and mining practices, and conducting watershed studies to assess environmental impacts due to urban and rural activities. This quantitative program prepares students for challenging and exciting careers in both the public and private sectors, particularly in the environmental consulting industry where the demand for well-trained hydrogeologists is high.
Year One
CHEM 120/CHEM 120L Physical and Chemical Properties of Matter/Laboratory
CHEM 123/CHEM 123L Chemical Reactions, Equilibria and Kinetics/Laboratory
EARTH 121/EARTH 121L Introductory Earth Sciences/Laboratory
EARTH 122/EARTH 122L Introductory Environmental Sciences/Laboratory
EARTH 123 Introductory Hydrology
MATH 127/MATH 128 Calculus 1/2
PHYS 121/PHYS 121L Mechanics/Laboratory
PHYS 122/PHYS 122L Waves, Electricity and Magnetism/Laboratory
One elective (0.5 unit)
Year Two
EARTH 123L Field Methods in Hydrology
EARTH 221 Geochemistry 1
EARTH 231 Mineralogy
EARTH 232 Petrography
EARTH 235 Stratigraphic Approaches to Understanding Earth's History
EARTH 238 Introductory Structural Geology
EARTH 260 Applied Geophysics 1
MATH 106 Applied Linear Algebra 1
or MATH 114 Linear Algebra for Science
MATH 218 Differential Equations for Engineers
Arts Core (0.5 unit)
One elective (0.5 unit)
Year Three
One 200- or 300- or 400-level EARTH (0.5 unit)
EARTH 333 Introductory Sedimentology
EARTH 342 Applied Geomorphology
EARTH 390 Methods in Geological Mapping
EARTH 421 Geochemistry 2
EARTH 458/EARTH 458L Physical Hydrogeology/Field Methods in Hydrogeology
CIVE 353 Geotechnical Engineering 1
STAT 202 Introductory Statistics for Scientists
Three electives ( 1.5 units)
Year Four
EARTH 359 Flow Through Porous Media
EARTH 436A/EARTH 436B Honours Thesis
or EARTH 499 Research Project plus one 300- or 400-level EARTH course
EARTH 440 Quaternary Geology
EARTH 456 Numerical Methods in Hydrogeology
EARTH 459 Chemical Hydrogeology
Two 300- or 400-level EARTH electives (1.0 unit)
Two electives (1.0 unit)
Recommended Electives
A computer programming course such as CS 115 Introduction to Computer Science 1
ENVS 201 Introduction to Canadian Environmental Law
BIOL 240 Fundamentals of Microbiology
BIOL 447 Environmental Microbiology
GEOG 387 Spatial Databases
GEOG 271 Earth from Space Using Remote Sensing