Dr. Kalwij has her education in groundwater management, water engineering & management (irrigation, drainage, hydraulics, hydrology) and natural resource & environmental policy.

Her field of interest and expertise are:

o Groundwater management (quality & quantity)

o Hydrogeology

o Conjunctive use of groundwater and surface water resources

o Irrigation water management & drainage

o Environmental hydrology

o Numerical simulation modeling (surface water, groundwater flow and transport models)

o Systems analysis and optimization (operations research and heuristic optimizers)

o Water conservation & sustainable water use

o Integrated & participatory approaches to solve water management problems

o Water law and policy

o Water and development, --- global issues

Dr. Kalwij has over 15 years combined professional experience in consulting, academics and international development. She has working experience from Canada, United States of America, Pakistan, Chile, and Thailand.

Dr. Kalwij has over 10 years research and practical working experience in numerical modeling, systems analysis and optimization, and artificial neural networks. She has a principal role in optimization software design and development (in C++ and C#) for managing groundwater quality and quantity, and conjunctive use. Dr. Kalwij has worked extensively with numerical three-dimensional simulation models such as MODFLOW (U.S. Geological Survey) and MT3DMS (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers).

Dr. Kalwij focused with her Ph.D. research on the design, development and application of computationally-efficient optimization techniques for solving groundwater management problems. She had a leading role in solving complex optimization problem formulations for containment and remediation of (i) RDX and TNT contamination at Umatilla Chemical Depot (Oregon); (ii) TCE contamination at Tooele Army Depot (Utah); and (iii) TCE and TNT contamination at Blain Ammunition Depot (Nebraska). These problems were solved for the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program of the U.S. Department of Defense.

Dr. Kalwij is co-inventor of the Robustness Optimization System, a mathematical process that couples optimizers with model parameter sensitivity analysis to maximize strategy robustness for a desired solution strategy (Patent No.: US 7,653,522 B2). Dr. Kalwij is also co-inventor of a filed patent that deals with efficiently performing complex optimization computations using surrogate simulators such as artificial neural networks.

Dr. Kalwij worked in international development for several years. She worked for the Directorate General International Cooperation of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stationed in Pakistan to work with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) as an irrigation engineer and researcher. IWMI is a research centre of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Dr. Kalwij was responsible for designing, conducting and supervising integrative on-farm irrigation planning and management research activities in command areas of the Indus Basin Irrigation System. Extension, awareness building activities, disseminating research results, and transferring improved surface irrigation technology to farmers played a pivotal role in her work. She was in charge of a team of researchers, field staff and students, and worked in collaboration with national and international institutes.

Dr. Kalwij has been or is currently involved with projects executed by GW Solutions pertaining to:

∇ Ground water quality assessment

∇ Well rehabilitation and development

∇ Aquifer characterization

∇ Hydrogeologic assessment

∇ Water demand assessment

∇ Water stewardship planning and implementation

∇ Potential impact of Coal Bed Methane extraction on salmon and salmon habitat in the Skeena River Headwaters, British Columbia (for the Pembina Institute, Vancouver)

∇ Developing educational and training material on water & storm water management and groundwater source protection for watershed and community planning (for the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation International)

Dr. Kalwij is involved in the community as member of the Abbotsford Environmental Committee, the Abbotsford-Sumas Aquifer Stakeholders group and Abbotsford-Sumas Aquifer Science group.

Please click here for her full resume.