Hydrology Courses - Centre for Hydrology | University of Saskatchewan

The Bachelor of Science in Hydrology program at the University of Saskatchewan was developed for students who are interested in how the hydrological cycle controls the wide variety of natural processes on Earth. For more information, please visit the Department of Geography and Planning website.

There is a strong tradition of interdisciplinary graduate training and collaboration in graduate hydrology research programs on campus, and more than a dozen classes in hydrology are typically offered each year from eight different departments in the colleges of Arts & Science, Agriculture and Engineering. A full list of courses offered at the University of Saskatchewan is available here.

The University of Saskatchewan also offers a Master of Water Security (M.W.S.). The Master of Water Security program is an interdisciplinary project‐based program that focuses on a holistic approach to water security. More information about this program is available here.

The following classes are currently offered by the Geography and Planning Department (as of Fall 2020):

Undergraduate Classes

GEOG 225 Term 1 Dr. Cherie Westbrook	Hydrology of Canada The geographic distribution of hydrologic processes in Canada is examined. The types of processes and their rates of operation are related to regional physical environments.
GEOG 323 Term 1 Dr. Xulin Guo	Remote Sensing Advanced lectures, seminars and laboratories for those specializing in resource and environmental studies. It includes inductive and deductive evaluation of air photo patterns and the interpretation of multi-spectral imagery and remote sensing imagery.
GEOG 325 Term 2 Dr. Cherie Westbrook	River Systems Processes responsible for river form and hydrological functioning are investigated conceptually and analytically. Topics covered include watershed controls on streamflow generation, river forms, river flow regimes, stream chemistry, and the impacts of climate and land use changes on stream ecohydrology.
GEOG 333 Term 2 Dr. Lijie Guo	Global Climate Change Earth's climate is constantly changing in response to influences forced upon it by natural systems and human actions. It is expected that current and future climate changes will have a strong influence on human populations, society, and development. This course describes how humans predict future climate changes and how we can mitigate or adapt to those changes. Major topics discussed in this course will focus on the politics and economics of climate change and how these can help, or hinder, our attempts to manage climate change. More direct attempts, through geoengineering and weather modification, will be addressed as well.
GEOG 427 Term 1 Arsh Grewal	Advanced Hydrology Examines the physical principles governing hydrological processes. Topics covered include precipitation, interception, snow accumulation, snowmelt, evaporation, infiltration, groundwater movement, flood and drought frequency analysis and stream flow. Lectures and tutorials with hydrology instrumentation will be supplemented by problem solving assignments and an essay.
CE 319 Term 2	Hydrology Basic hydrological processes such as precipitation, evapotranspiration, runoff, infiltration, interception, and depression storage are introduced. Engineering applications such as streamflow and storm hydrographs, flood routing, hydrologic analyses and design, and watershed simulation are covered.

Graduate Classes

GEOG 803 Term 1 and 2 Dr. Cherie Westbrook	Research in Geography The purpose of this course is to introduce graduate students to theoretical and practical issues in geographical research. Its specific objective is to demonstrate and promote professional practices in geography culminating in a research plan that will serve as the basis for developing a graduate research proposal.
GEOG 827 Term 1 Dr. John Pomeroy	Principles of Hydrology This course aims to describe and explain the physical principles and processes that govern hydrology with special reference to Canadian conditions and with an emphasis on the application of coupled mass and energy balance calculations in hydrology. Students will learn the primary Canadian hydrological processes, assess the effects of variable boundary conditions on these processes, and apply coupled energy and mass balance equations to calculate hydrological flows. Lectures are held in an intensive 10 day period at the Biogeoscience Institute, Barrier Lake Field Station, Kananaskis Valley, Alberta. The course is described in full here.
ENVS 819 Term 1	Catchment Hydrology This course introduces students to the field of catchment hydrology. The course learning objectives include learning the fundamentals of catchment hydrology, developing an understanding of the fundamentals of the catchment water balance and diagnosing key hydrological process associated with how catchments store and release water.
ENVS 826 Term 1	Climate Change This course will help the student develop a fundamental knowledge of the consequences of climate change from the environmental and social aspects. Students will gain a comprehensive understanding of climate change, and its impacts on the different parts of the Earth systems, such as the water cycle, arctic hydrology and how it is related to sea level rising. Climate change impacts on human society will also be discussed.