EARTH 458LField Methods in Hydrogeology

Units: 0.25
Faculty: Science
Subject: Earth Sciences

When it runs

Ran in 4 of the last 7 terms. Winter 2027: not on the schedule. Spring 2027: schedule not out yet.

This course exposes students to a wide variety of field and laboratory techniques for collecting hydrogeologic data and to gain experience in interpreting the data. Advantages and limitations of various measurement and data reduction techniques for evaluating groundwater flow systems are demonstrated in a set of field exercises carried out at the groundwater demonstration facility located on the university North Campus. These exercises illustrate the complexity of natural systems and the need for good data collection and interpretation skills when characterizing such systems .

Prerequisites

None listed.

Corequisites

Completed or concurrently enrolled in:
- EARTH458 - Physical Hydrogeology (0.50)

Antirequisites

None listed.

Leads to

No course lists it as a requisite.

Reviewed on UW Flow

79% liked it48% easy77% useful

From 19 ratings and 6 comments on UW Flow. The most helpful comments, quoted as written, without names. Read them all on UW Flow.

The material demonstrated in this course is definitely a plus to my resume. At the same time it was time consuming but interesting.

Oct 2014 · liked it · 1 found this helpfulOn UW Flow Remove this
Fine enough course. Best part was during Lab 1 when we did the core sample and I had the joy of tasting each of the strata. To this day I am still fiending for another taste of that wet and juicy sub-water table clay. I must have "sampled" at least 100 grams. Other than that the course is not too bad. If you go to the TA office hours and make friends with them it is pretty much a free 90 (if you're into that kinda stuff).

Aug 2026 · liked itOn UW Flow Remove this
The labs were super fun but their assignments were so tedious. Having to manually draw contour maps or borehole logs was brutal. It would be so much more useful to us if they taught us the real software that is used for these things. Also the tutorials were basically useless as they just repeated the things taught in the prior online modules and labs instead of explaining how to do the assignment (which they said the tutorials were for).

Aug 2026 · liked itOn UW Flow Remove this
This course is easy and there are four outdoor labs with reports. Definately be ready for long days on the labs. You will need water and suncreen - one day it was 35 degrees and the lab required significant walking to complete.

Dec 2024 · didn’t like itOn UW Flow Remove this
This was a great course, lots of practical learning from the labs on North Campus.

Jul 2024 · liked itOn UW Flow Remove this

Discussed on r/uwaterloo

2 posts and comments in 2 threads mention EARTH 458L, October 2017 to December 2024. Quoted word for word, newest first; each reply sits under the post and the comment that started its branch. Search r/uwaterloo for newer posts.

Winter 2020

Mar 28, 2020 UWaterloo vs McMaster for Earth Sciences 5 points, 14 comments

“Which school is better for Earth Sciences? UWaterloo or McMaster? For any students in Earth Sciences attending either of these schools, I'd love to hear your opinion on your experience at the school. …”

u/5nothing: “I'm in environmental Sciences (take similar courses as Earth sci for first two years) and going to Mac for graduate studies: Earth sci isn't a huge flashy program so I'd say either school is a good …”

u/Chibi_Chocolates: “… For hydrology related field courses there’s EARTH 223 and EARTH 458L which are biweekly labs/local field trips where you get pretty wet and mucky if that is your cup of tea. …”

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Fall 2017

Oct 28, 2017 Any way to disable UWCourseLinker from posting? 16 points, 26 comments

“posting a reply to my comment I find the bot annoying.”

u/Jackhofmann: “PSYCH 483 PSYCH 484 PSYCH 485 PSYCH 486 PSYCH 490R PSYCH 499A PSYCH 499B PSYCH 499C PSYCH 621 PSYCH 630 PSYCH 677A PSYCH 704A PSYCH 704B PSYCH 707 PSYCH 710 PSYCH 714 PSYCH 717 PSYCH 720A PSYCH 721A …”

u/Jackhofmann: “… EARTH 260 EARTH 331 EARTH 342 EARTH 421 EARTH 436A EARTH 436B EARTH 440 EARTH 444 EARTH 458 EARTH 458L EARTH 461 EARTH 499 EARTH 625 EARTH 626 EARTH 627 EARTH 650 EARTH 653 EARTH 668 EARTH 691 EARTH 692 EARTH 695 EASIA 201R EASIA 202R EASIA 203R EASIA 204R EASIA 231R EASIA 301R …”