An example stream reach of Underwood Creek’s concrete lined channel before rehabilitation in 2012.
Nicolas H Buer
Nicolas Buer is a Hydrologist with the Upper Midwest Water Science Center.
Mr. Buer has 10 years of experience in measuring the quantity and quality of point and nonpoint source runoff with the U.S. Geological Survey. Over the last 8 years, the majority of Nic’s work has focused on supporting urban focused research, characterizing the hydrologic and chemical response of stormwater to structural and non-structural practices designed to mitigate stormwater pollution and nonpoint source runoff in urban environments. Much of this work has been used to inform environmental and city managers within the state of Wisconsin. In the last 5 years, his work has helped quantify the water quality benefits of fall leaf collection, determine the water quality benefits of various permeable pavement surfaces to establish criteria for their use, measure the “urban effect” on water quality and quantity in surface waters, and help establish a network of monitoring systems to model and monitor urban flooding. Accurate water-quality data produced through Nic’s work has proven beneficial to various local and state partners in the development of best management practices (BMPs), permit compliance, hydrologic modeling, and evaluation of proprietary devices.
Areas of Expertise
Nic has considerable experience with real-time water quality monitoring in both urban and rural settings as well as monitoring and interpreting nonpoint source runoff in urban environments. He has participated in several research studies that focus on mitigating stormwater pollution through structural or non-structural practices such as leaf collection, street sweeping, and storm-water filtering.
Current Projects
- Characterization of permeable pavement temperature properties and implications for deicer reduction
- Evaluation of the water quality benefits of permeable pavement
- Evaluating filtration capacity of rain gardens in the removal of nutrients, sediment, pesticides, PAHs, and pharmaceuticals
- Determining the impact of large scale Green Infrastructure (GI) implementation on urban stormwater volumes
- Measuring leaf collection programs as a means to reduce nutrient loads from urban basins
- Measuring chloride loading to surface waters as a means to evaluate winter salting practices
- Quantifying the urban effect on a high-quality trout stream through water quality and quantity
- Providing expertise in the collection of high-quality data for modeling and monitoring of urban flooding
Previous Projects
- Evaluation of permeable pavement maintenance practices
- Quantifying the effects of tree canopy on urban runoff
- Evaluation of a Coanda-effect screen in removing pollutants from urban stormwater
- Urban runoff particle size analysis for WinSLAMM model calibrations
- Depth Integrated Sample Arm (DISA) evaluation in urban and rural stormwater runoff settings
- Characterization of agriculture field runoff during storm events
Science and Products
Stream reach of Underwood Creek's concrete lined channel
An example stream reach of Underwood Creek’s concrete lined channel before rehabilitation in 2012.
Science and Products
- Publications
- Multimedia
Stream reach of Underwood Creek's concrete lined channel
An example stream reach of Underwood Creek’s concrete lined channel before rehabilitation in 2012.
An example stream reach of Underwood Creek’s concrete lined channel before rehabilitation in 2012.