Occupation
Hydrologist
Hydrologists study how water moves through and is stored in the environment — rivers, aquifers, catchments, and the systems built around them. The work supports flood risk assessment, water supply planning, contamination investigation, and environmental permitting. It combines field measurement with modelling and a good deal of regulatory reporting.
Also known as: Hydrogeologist · Water resources scientist · Flood risk analyst
Occupation content
Part of Natural sciences and research
What the work involves
- Install and maintain gauges, loggers, and monitoring boreholes
- Collect flow, level, and water quality measurements and check them for sensor drift
- Build and calibrate catchment, groundwater, or flood models
- Assess how proposed developments or abstractions would change water behaviour
- Write technical assessments for regulators, utilities, planners, or clients
- Interpret long monitoring records alongside rainfall and land-use information
How people commonly enter
- A degree in hydrology, earth sciences, environmental science, or civil engineering
- Postgraduate study in hydrogeology or water resources for specialist roles
- Environmental technician or monitoring roles as an entry point, with further study alongside
- Graduate schemes with water utilities, environmental consultancies, or regulatory agencies
Typical training: Bachelor's degree
Licensing: Regulated in some jurisdictions — confirm the current requirement with the regulator in your province, state, or country.
Typical work context
Outdoors · Desk based · Team based · Involves travel · Varied work · Client sites
Related interests
Investigative (analytical) · Realistic (hands-on)
Related aptitude preparation
These are preparation links only. They do not measure eligibility for this occupation and no score here qualifies or disqualifies anyone.
Skills to practise
Practice suites
Related learning
Family-level learning links for Natural sciences and research.
Official sources
Labour-market facts such as pay and employment projections are not reproduced here. Open an official source below for figures, with its own geography and reference period.
- O*NET OnLine — occupation search: hydrologist · International
Link checked
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics — Occupational Outlook Handbook: Hydrologists · United States
Link checked
- UK National Careers Service — Hydrologist · United Kingdom
Link checked
Labour-market context (not part of exploration match)
This is broad family-level context for Natural sciences and research in Canada, not a figure for Hydrologist. It does not affect matching scores and is not an eligibility determination.
This is a broad Natural sciences and research family. Explore the official profile for the chosen occupation; entry education and training can differ within the family.
Canada Job Bank Career Planning · Canada · Current official profile; consult source for its release period
Natural sciences and research: education pathways
Some roles in Natural sciences and research may be regulated. Confirm whether the specific role requires registration, certification, or a jurisdiction-specific licence.
Canada Job Bank Career Planning · Canada · Current official profile; consult source for its release period
Natural sciences and research: licensing
Find jobs
These are live, user-controlled searches on each source's own site for “ Hydrologist”. Novus Learn does not fetch, store, or rank these results, and job availability never changes your exploration match score.
- Search Canada Job Bank · Canada
- Search USAJOBS · United States federal
- Search EURES · European Union / EEA
- Search Indeed · International (choose location on Indeed)