Sarah Peirce

Sarah Peirce joined the U of T faculty at the St. George Campus as a CLTA Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream in 2019. Sarah teaches the following physical geography courses that have recently migrated to the Department of Earth Sciences under the "JEG" code:

• JEG201 - Geomorphology (formerly GGR201)
• JEG205 -  Introduction to Soil Science (formerly GGR205)
• JEG301 - Fluvial Geomorphology (formerly GGR301)
• JEG308 - Canadian Arctic Environments (formerly GGR308) - see the course trailer here!
• JEG305 - Biogeography (formerly GGR305)
• JEG406 - Geomorphology and the Anthropocene (formerly GGR406)

Before teaching at U of T, Sarah was a Mitacs Elevate postdoctoral fellow investigating the performance and geomorphic monitoring practices of natural channel design projects in Southern Ontario. Sarah’s previous postdoctoral and Ph.D. work at the University of Waterloo and Western University, respectively, made use of physical models of rivers to examine sediment transport and morphological change.

Educational Resources

• Mud Creek-Evergreen Brick Works Urban GeoWalk – virtual walking tour of Mud Creek, Toronto, published in 2025. This GeoWalk was created by U of T students working with Dr. Daxberger (UTSc) and Dr. Peirce in collaboration with the APGO Educational Fund. https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/8bb907dfb6cc4065bb5729c6c74a68fe/.
• Wilket Creek Urban Geowalk – virtual walking tour and educational resource for Wilket Creek in Toronto published in 2025. This GeoWalk was created by U of T students working with Dr. Peirce and Dr. Daxberger (UTSc) in collaboration with the APGO Educational Fund. https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/c6cf0810d00b4b819da4012b6b129608

Publications 

Papangelakis, E., Hassan, M. A., Luzi, D., Burge, L.M., & Peirce, S. (2023). Measuring geomorphology in river assessment procedures 2: Recommendations for supporting river management goals. Journal of the American Water Resources Association. 59: 360–1382 DOI: 10.1111/1752-1688.13145

Papangelakis, E., Hassan, M. A., Luzi, D., Burge, L.M., & Peirce, S. (2023). Measuring geomorphology in river assessment procedures 1: A global overview of current practices. Journal of the American Water Resources Association. 59:1342–1359 DOI: 10.1111/1752-1688.13146

Peirce, S., MacVicar, B.J., Papangelakis, E, Vervynck, L., Ashmore, P. (2021) Experiments on restoring alluvial cover using gravel augmentation in a variable width channel with irregular meanders. Geomorphology. Vol 379 (107585). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2020.107585.

Leduc, P., Peirce, S., and Ashmore, P. (2019) Short Communication: Challenges and Applications of Structure-from-Motion Photogrammetry in a Physical Model of a Braided River. Earth Surface Dynamics. Vol. 7 (1): 97-106. DOI: doi.org/10.5194/esurf-7-97-2019.

Peirce, S., Ashmore, P., and Leduc, P. (2018) Evolution of Grain Size Distributions and Bed Mobility during Hydrographs in Gravel-Bed Braided Rivers. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms. Vol. 44 (1): 752-765. DOI: 10.1002/esp.4511.

Peirce, S., Ashmore, P., and Leduc, P. (2018) The variability in the morphological active width: results from physical models of gravel-bed braided rivers. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms. Vol. 43 (11): 2371-2383. DOI:10.1002/esp.4400.