Research Team

The group works on urban hydrology, green infrastructure, water quality, and environmental monitoring. Current members are listed below, with recent graduates and earlier alumni following.

Current graduate students

Ph.D. candidates

• Zhonghao Zhang

  University of Victoria

  Low impact development, stormwater modelling, and climate-related uncertainty in urban hydrology.

• Jingwen Liu

  University of Victoria

  Urban heat island mitigation through rainwater tree trenches, structural soils, and energy-water balance modelling.

• Aditya R.

  University of Calgary IISC CREATE Program · co-supervised with Dr. Jianxun He (U of C)

  Long-term impacts of flooding on transportation systems.

Master’s students

• Meichen Zhao

  University of Victoria · co-supervised with Dr. Rishi Gupta, Dr. Peter Constable, Dr. Phalguni Mukhopadhyaya (UVic), Dr. Jianxun He, Dr. Angus Chu (U of C)

  Structural soils and urban forestry for urban heat island mitigation, in partnership with the City of Vancouver.

Awards and recognition

Students and the group have received:

• CAWQ Philip H. Jones Award — best presentation by a young water professional (first place)
• Best presentation award, ICEST Conference
• Best poster award, CWRA Conference
• NSERC scholarships (CGS-M, CGS-D, PGS-D)
• UVic graduate fellowships
• Publications in journals including Environmental Science & Technology, Water Research, and Journal of Hydrology

Recent Ph.D. graduates

• Usman T. Khan (2015)

  Now Associate Professor, University of Calgary

  Environmental Modelling and Prediction using Fuzzy Numbers.

• Jiping Huang (2015)

  Now Senior Engineer, AECOM

  Modeling Permeable Pavements.

• Jianxun He (2009)

  Now Associate Professor, University of Calgary

  Stormwater Recycling.

• Maria R. Quinonez-Pinon (2007)

  Now Research Scientist, Environment Canada

  Improved Techniques for Measuring and Estimating Scaling Factors Used to Aggregate Forest Transpiration.

Recent master’s graduates

• Farshad Jalilian (2019)

  Biofilm Sensing Tool Development for Environmental Monitoring.

• Bo Shao (2020)

  Thermodynamic transport in building materials as influenced by moisture content.

• Kyle Fairfield (2020)

  Design and Application of a Water Powered Irrigation Robot.

• Kai Xu (2018)

  Spatial and Temporal Analysis of the Distribution of Bacterial Contamination in Nearshore Areas of Southern Vancouver Island.

• Ryan Thomas (2018)

  An Investigation of Fuzzy Modelling for Spatial Prediction of Sparsely Distributed Data.

• Zhonghao Xu (2018)

  The Application of Whole Oyster Shells in Stormwater Treatment Removing Heavy Metals.

Earlier alumni

• Leonardo D. Raaflaub (2010, Ph.D.)

  Duff Moisture Modeling.

• Ghazi Al-Rawas (2009, Ph.D.)

  Mitigation of Flash Flooding in Arid Regions.

• Harleen Singh (2017, M.A.Sc.)

  Evaluation of Moisture Indices for Insulated Walls.

• Faiza Shazad (2017, M.A.Sc.)

  Falling Head Test vs ASTM Standard.

• Tingting Yu (2015, M.A.Sc.)

  Modelling Biofilm Activity in Bioretention Cells.

• Usman Khan (2010, M.A.Sc.)

  Bioretention Cell Efficacy in Cold Climates.

• Kimberly Robinson (2007, M.A.Sc.)

  Modelling Aquatic Vegetation and Dissolved Oxygen.

• David M. McAllister (2005, M.A.Sc.)

  Remote Estimation of Leaf Area Index.

• Zhu Xiang (2004, M.A.Sc.)

  Physically Based Modelling for Improved Flood Prediction.

• Simon M.K. Poon (2004, M.A.Sc.)

  Snow Mapping Using MODIS Data.

• Catherine L.I. Ho (2003, M.A.Sc.)

  Urban Snow Hydrology and Modelling.

• Michael E.J. St. Laurent (2003, M.A.Sc.)

  Hydrological Modelling in the Northern Boreal Forest.

Facilities and resources

• Environmental hydraulics laboratory — stormwater treatment, permeable pavement testing, and water quality analysis
• Field equipment — flow monitoring, water quality sensors, meteorological stations, soil moisture probes
• Computational resources — high-performance computing access; SWMM and PCSWMM; GIS and remote sensing tools; Python, MATLAB, and R

Since 2000 the group has graduated 15+ Ph.D. and 20+ master’s students. For prospective applicants, see Graduate Opportunities.