SEG-30306 Ecohydrology

Course

Credits 6.00

Language of instruction:

English

Assumed knowledge on:

SEG-20306 Water Quantity and Quality;
MAT-30806 Applied Partial Differential Equations.

Continuation courses:

SEG-30806 Hydrological Modelling; Theory and Practice

Contents:

This course focuses on large-scale groundwater flow and transport processes, and on interactions between the vegetation cover, the unsaturated zone and groundwater systems.
The lectures include the following elements:
- defining regional systems in terms of first-order approximations of water and nutrient interactions with vegetation types;
- refining the first-order typology of water balances for bucket-model approaches and related analytical approaches;
- defining and analyzing climate, soil and vegetation for regional use;
- discussing coupling approaches between groundwater systems and the unsaturated zone;
- defining and analyzing evapotranspiration and interception of non-uniform surfaces;
- describing modern experimental techniques for soil hydraulic functions and groundwater recharge;
- presenting state of the art regional modelling studies;
- deriving the fundamental flow and transport equations;
- analyze and critically evaluate up-scaling strategies in time and space;
- presenting a methodology for constructing large scale groundwater models.

Learning outcomes:

At the end of the course, students will be able to:
- demonstrate understanding of groundwater flow and transport processes on a regional scale;
- demonstrate understanding of the effect of field-scale variability of land use, soil type and drainage conditions on regional fluxes of water and solutes to the groundwater;
- estimate up-scaled hydrological parameter values for groundwater flow from small-scale data;
- discuss strategies plants and vegetation have to adapt to water shortage;
- analyze from a hydrological point of view the strategies plants and vegetation have to adapt to hydrological conditions;
- discuss analyses and tools describing adaptation strategies;
- apply the proper boundary conditions for eco- and agrohydrological models;
- derive soil hydraulic functions from evaporation experiments;
- explain why groundwater modeling results will differ from measurements;
- be able to vertically integrate terms of the flow and transport equations, to illustrate different choices for defining average properties.

Activities:

Attending lectures, practical training with computer models, and self-study of lecture notes and papers preview via Eduweb.

Examination:

Written exam.

Literature:

Lecture notes and papers preview via Eduweb.