They may be concerned with finding water supplies for cities or irrigated farms, or controlling river flooding or soil erosion. Persons trained in hydrology may have a wide variety of job titles. Engineers who study hydrology include those in agricultural, civil, environmental, hydraulic, irrigation and sanitary engineering. Scientists and engineers in hydrology may be involved in both field investigations and office work. In the field, they may collect basic data, oversee testing of water quality, direct field crews and work with equipment.
Many jobs require travel, some abroad.
A hydrologist may spend considerable time doing field work in remote and rugged terrain. In the office, hydrologists do many things such as interpreting hydrologic data and performing analyses for determining possible water supplies. Much of their work relies on computers for organizing, summarizing and analyzing masses of data. Computers are also used for modeling studies such as the prediction of flooding and the consequences of reservoir releases or the effect of leaking underground oil storage tanks. The work of hydrologists is as varied as the uses of water and may range from planning multimillion dollar interstate water projects to advising homeowners about backyard drainage problems.