Hydrology

Course content

This course provides you with a basic understanding of water and its movements in the landscape around us. Water gives life, but can also be a threat to people and infrastructure. This course studies hydrologic topics from different perspectives. During the course you will study the flow of surface water, groundwater and soil water, and how these interact with each other and with the atmosphere. The course will also cover the hydrological models and how they can be applied to solve everyday problems. Socially important applications such as drinking water supply and flood prevention included as a supplement to course work. The course also includes elements of practical and commercial applications of hydrology.

Course content

The course contains a number of different modules that should give the student animage of the complexity in hydrology by highlighting the different processes that areactive in the hydrological system. Important components are the relation soil - water -vegetation, surface water movements, infiltration and water movements in the soil. Concepts such as aquifer, groundwater formation, water retention capacity, saturated and unsaturated zones, run-off, flash-floods, inundations and related processes are centralin the course. Furthermore, the course covers human influence on the water balance.You work with both theoretical concepts and practical exercises to increase the understanding of different processes and how these can be analysed.

Teaching methods

The teaching consists of lectures, laboratory sessions and exercises, individual or ingroups, oral and written presentations and joint discussions as well as field trips. Allparts except lectures are compulsory. The course is divided into two components. These are assessed in two modules where written assignments and project work stand for 7.5 credits and an examination for 7.5 credits.