Coastal & River Environmental |

Coastal & River Environmental

Baird solves the environmental challenges our clients face in any aquatic system. Our expertise focuses on water quality, sediments, contaminants, and habitat restoration in freshwater and marine environments. Our services include: water quality protection, forensic studies, erosion and sedimentation, climate change adaptation, and watershed and coastal zone management.

Water Quality

Water is a non-renewable and precious resource. The pressures of urbanization, agriculture, and industry create an increasing need to protect, preserve and improve both water and sediment quality. Baird works with private and public sector clients to develop water quality solutions from the design of intakes and outfalls to evaluation of waterbody health and assimilative capacity. We provide a practical approach with cutting edge scientific methods including 3-D hydrodynamic and water quality modelling and bio-indicator techniques to develop baseline data and long-term monitoring.

Sediment Transport

Sediments borne by rivers, lakes, estuaries and seas may have serious adverse effects on both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Computer simulations are often used to develop an understanding of existing conditions or to explore remedial actions. Baird has a full range of numerical models to address pressing surface water problems, whether it is the assessment of an industrial outfall, scour in estuaries, or deterioration of a wetland.

Outfall Design and Assessment

The analysis and design of both intake and outfall structures reflect the complexity of hydraulic environments and the desired performance of the system. The design of these structures requires a thorough understanding of pipe hydraulics, local hydrodynamic conditions, near-field mixing processes and far-field advection/dispersion mechanisms. Baird’s technical expertise and experience results in cost-effective and accurate analysis and design of intake and outfall structures.

Thermal Plume Assessment

Baird’s assessment of thermal plume discharges employs both near-field and 3D far-field modelling techniques to analyze the impact on receiving waters. We assess existing systems for re-licensing purposes and plant expansions and provide design recommendations for new outfall structures to meet regulatory requirements.

Assimilative Capacity

The occurrence of harmful algal blooms (HABs) and the contamination of drinking water occur when the capacity of receiving water to assimilate pollution is exceeded. These are very complex ecological processes. Baird applies complex ecological models to evaluate the threshold for nutrient loading to avoid HABs or to prevent the development of hypoxic or anoxic conditions. Our success in these projects is a result of our cutting-edge scientific capabilities combined with our ability to lead or contribute to multidisciplinary teams.

Watersheds & Coastal Management

A significant percentage of the world’s population lives near ocean, lake and river shorelines. Historically, these natural systems have been developed and manipulated for societal benefits without due consideration to their natural functions and the critical ecological services they provide, or the inherent risks. At Baird we take a holistic approach to watershed and coastal planning, balancing the needs of society, a strong economy, healthy ecosystems and an understanding of risk. We apply these principles when developing successful management plans and mitigation designs for our clients.

Ecosystem Restoration

Ecosystem restoration seeks to reverse the cumulative impacts of development on our environment. These projects strive to recreate critical habitat, restore natural processes, reconnect fragmented ecosystems and enhance human use of these areas. Our success results from assembling multi-disciplinary teams that combine the complex interaction between physical and biological processes, create linkages to adjacent ecosystems, support native flora and fauna, and enhance habitat for threatened species. Our designs are practical, affordable and sustainable.

Erosion & Sedimentation

Baird’s experience in combining geomorphic investigations with analytical studies and multi-dimensional hydrodynamic and sediment transport modelling is the key to our success in understanding erosion and sedimentation in wetlands, rivers and lakes. Our projects include the naturalization of rivers to prevent erosion, evaluation of alternatives to address buried contaminated sediments, and setback planning to prevent erosion.

Sediment Remediation

Our remediation and restoration services are based on a collaborative approach to science and engineering (and integration between our rivers, watersheds, estuarine and nearshore expertise), which benefits from the application of physical and numerical models of hydrodynamics, sediment transport and water quality. Our modelling efforts are complemented by detailed field data collection programs, which vary in scope from current and sediment transport monitoring to sediment coring and environmental reconstruction.