Also called: Surface Water Hydrologist, Water Scientist
Studies how water moves through rivers, snowpack, soil, and underground, to forecast floods and droughts.
You might measure river flow by wading in with a current meter, then build a model predicting spring floods from snowpack data. You could work for the USGS, a water district, or a consulting firm, explaining to cities how much water they'll have.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Master's degree, about 6 years after high school. Bachelor's in geoscience, engineering, or environmental science; many have a master's.
Ways in: 4-year college, Graduate school. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Hydrology, Geology, Environmental Science, Civil Engineering.
Growing about average (about 4% over 10 years). Hydrologists.
Medium risk for 10 years. AI flood and drought models are improving fast; fewer routine modeling jobs, while fieldwork and expert judgment stay.
Classes: Earth science, AP Statistics, AP Calculus, Computer science.
Official data: O*NET occupation 19-2043.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.