Water management is a key component of the majority of BGC's engineering and geoscience projects. BGC has assembled a team of water resource engineers, hydrologists, fluvial geomorphologists, and hydrogeologists that help our clients plan and execute solutions that fit their specific project needs. BGC staff is actively continuing research projects that benefit our clients. BGC has provided water resource consulting to all sectors of development including: mining, pipeline, railways, private development and all levels of government (federal, provincial, municipal and First Nations). The integration of traditional engineering approaches with fluvial geomorphology and hillslope processes is a critical component of our evaluation of rivers and their sediment transport regimes. Our company has spearheaded the flood risk assessment approach that was carried out in detail for the Chilliwack district and for the Lower Kootenay Indian Band, in British Columbia. This approach includes a quantification of all flood consequences through a range of return periods, which has replaced the traditional return period approach in Europe and is gathering momentum in North America, Australia and New Zealand. Our groundwater professionals are integral project team members on our pit dewatering, dam design, slope stability, landfill, water supply, and geo-environmental contaminated sites projects.

BGC Engineering provides a full range of water management services including:

Water Resources Engineering

Dam Spillway design
Channel diversion design
1D and 2D hydraulic modeling of rivers and adjacent floodplains (e.g. MIKE 11, MIKE FLOOD, HEC-RAS)
Quantitative Flood Risk Assessments (QFRA)
Dam breach analyses of dams including tailings storage facilities (e.g. FLO-2D, FLDWAV)
Debris flow modeling (FLO-2D, DAN3D)
Scour prediction for pipeline crossings
Bank and channel erosion protection including the integration of bioengineering techniques
Channel design for mine reclamation

Hydrology

Development of water balance models for management of water resources at open pit mines
Stochastic evaluation of strategies developed for mine water management
Peak flow estimates
Hydrologic modelling of surface flows (e.g. HSPF)
Surface water control for landslide mitigation and prevention
Quantitative analysis of climate change impacts on IDF rainfall data
Real time debris flow forecasting
Installation and monitoring of climate data
Estimates of lake evaporation
Snow course surveys
Installation and monitoring of automatic streamflow gauges

Fluvial Geomorphology

Prediction of bank erosion trends
Suspended and bedload transport estimates
Historic evaluation of trends in channel planform
Sediment budget analyses
Evaluation and design of gravel removals as a flood management tool
Gravel bed sampling to evaluate channel stability
Quantitative evaluation of rivers prone to the formation of natural landslide dams
Combination of hillslope and fluvial processes in complex watershed assessments

Groundwater

Dewatering evaluations
Dam seepage evaluations
Slope pore pressure evaluations
Numerical groundwater flow and transport modeling (MODFLOW, FEFLOW, and SEEPW)
Hydrogeological field data collection (pumping tests, slug tests, and packer tests)
Contaminant hydrogeology and remedial design
Groundwater resource evaluation, supply, and protection
Surface water / Groundwater interaction
Hydrogeochemistry and environmental forensics