Water and Ice Research Lab (WIRL)

Water in its liquid and solid phases is critically important to Canadian landscapes and ecosystems. Climate warming and resource development are modifying many aspects of the hydrological cycle, impacting water quantity/quality, and causing many fundamental changes to the cryosphere.  As these effects of climate change intensify, our understanding of the relevant physical processes must improve in order to provide managers with the best possible monitoring and modelling tools for sound environmental planning. Carleton’s Water and Ice Research Laboratory (WIRL) is a new cluster for research and student training that is focused on aquatic and cryospheric environments and climate change impacts in Canada. WIRL research activities and training opportunities will improve scientific understanding of key hydrologic processes, including runoff generation and terrestrial-aquatic interactions in complex terrain (P.I. M. Richardson) and ice-island composition, deterioration and drift (P.I. D. Mueller). WIRL researchers use a unique blend of field observation, laboratory analysis and geospatial computing, with particular expertise in the use of active and passive remote sensing approaches for multi-source data integration, spatial scaling and predictive environmental modelling.