Welcome to the Water and Ice Research Laboratory (WIRL)
Water in its liquid and solid phases is critically important to Canadian landscapes and ecosystems. Climate warming will modify many aspects of the hydrological cycle, leading to issues related to water quantity/quality, ecosystem services, cryospheric change and the resultant threat to northern infrastructure. As the impacts of climate change increase, our understanding of these processes must improve in order to provide managers with the best monitoring and modelling tools in an uncertain world. The overarching objective of WIRL is to create a cluster of research and training that is focused on aquatic and cryospheric environments and climate change impacts. We aim to improve scientific understanding of key hydrologic processes, and provide monitoring and modelling tools using a blend of field, laboratory and computing methods. Research at WIRL falls under two broad topical areas associated with Dr. Mueller and Dr. Richardson. Click here for a map of our current and past research sites.
Water 
- Threats to freshwater resources and aquatic ecosystem services in Canada
- Water-balance simulation in complex terrain
- Landscape limnology models for cumulative effects assessment
Ice 
- Impacts of climate change to extreme coastal ice features
- Changes in High Arctic ice shelves and the fiords they occupy
- Remote sensing techniques for ice island and cryospheric change detection
- Ice island/iceberg drift and deterioration
Latest News
A study on the future melt rates in Milne Fiord now published
Ever wonder how fast the Milne Ice Shelf or Milne Glacier or its ice tongue will melt after major calving events or under various warming scenarios? The answers to these questions and more are in [...]
An analysis of iceberg/ice island tracks now published in Arctic Science
A study, led by Abby Dalton at the Laboratory for Cryopsheric Research at the University of Ottawa examines the drift of iceberg tracks in Nares Strait and Baffin Bay. The study is the first to [...]
Understanding ice growth on the Rideau Canal
A publication was just released on the 'Impact of environmental factors on energy balance and ice growth in winter recreational waterways' in the Journal of Cold Regions Engineering. This study, authored by postdoctoral researcher Elham [...]