General hydrology [ LBIRE2103 ]

Icampus

Principles of mass and energy transport phenomena
Data processing (Excel ' spreadsheet, ...)
Introduction to MATLAB technical computing

-Water resources issues at the field scale, regional, continental and global scale.
- The various components of the hydrological cycle (rainfall, infiltration, runoff, drainage, subsurface flow, evapotranspiration): process description, mathematical modelling, measurement methods and interpretation
- Hydrological modeling at the parcel and catchment scale

- Hydrometrology

- Flood control and water conservation

a. Learning outcomes

M1.1, , M1.3, M2.1, , M2.3, M 6.2

b.Specific formulation of learning outcomes

At the end of the course ( 2.5 ECTS) and practical work ( 2.5 ECTS) , students will be able to:

-       understand and discuss, in a changing environmental context, the issues of water management at different spatial scales ;

-       describe the processes involved in the different terms of the water balance at the scale of the field parcel and the  watershed ;

-       develop and interpret the equations that are used for describing these processes;

-       describe working principles of hydrometrological instruments, including the  advantages and disadvantages of different instrumentation and monitoring techniques ;

-       interpret hydrological measurement data (rainfall , evapotranspiration, drainage, runoff) ;

-       use various hydrological models to calculate various terms of the water balance at the field parcel and watershed scale, with particular attention to the rainfall-runoff relationship in watersheds ;

-       propose and justify the choice of hydraulic infrastructure to regulate water flow at the catchment basin;

- write a report on the practical work and critically analyze the results.

Oral examination with written preparation.

Evaluation of the written report of the practical work and the excursion. 

- The lectures are given in English, but illustrated by slights in French. A reference textbook in French supports the  lectures.
- Videos are used to  illustrate some aspects of the course, in particular in relation to the section on infiltration and hydrologic modeling

- Practical work in the computer room allow students to use advanced methods of hydrological analysis of field parcels and watersheds.
- The practical work is a executed  in a team.

- A written report stimulates the communication skills of the student and allows evaluating the practical work;
- The excursions allows illustrating the concepts of flood control and water conservation in the region.

Lectures :

-       Introduction: hydrological issues at different scales

-       The water balance at the parcel and catchment scale

-       The watershed characterization:  hydro- geographical and functional characterization

-       Precipitation: process description, genesis,  measurements, data interpretation.

-       Infiltration: process description, genesis, characterization and analysis.

-       Evapotranspiration: process description, genesis, characterization and analysis.

-       Runoff:  process description, genesis, characterization and analysis.

-       Hydrological modeling: modeling phases , typology  of hydrological  models, illustrations of several modeling approaches, methods of calibration and inverse modeling, validation methods , sensitivity analysis.

-       Hydrometrology : flow measurement, processing and interpretation of the data, hydrological monitoring and collection of runoff.

-       Flood mitigation and water conservation: description of infrastructure for flood mitigation and water conservation.
 

Practical work
The theoretical aspects are illustrated by practical work in the computer room :
 

-       Geographical characterization of a watershed ( boundary, topographical features) using GIS  tools.

-       Characterization of rain : time series analysis, IDF diagrams, Thiessen polygon interpolation.

-       Modelling evapotranspiration : Analysis of meteorological data, estimation of evapotranspiration by the Penman-Monteith method.

-       Modelling of drainage of a field parcel and closing the water balance of the field parcel;

-       Modelling the rainfall-runoff relationship in watershed scale: Statistical modeling statistics, conceptual modeling , modeling with a spatially distributed hydrological model ;

-       Design of a storm basin.
 

Two excursions allow illustrating course concepts in a regional setting

Reference: General Hydrology ', A. Musy.
Slight of the lectures on  iCampus
Syllabus for part evapotranspiration / infiltration