WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT AND HYDRAULIC MODELLING - 2021/2

Module Overview

The module provides an overview of the rationale and importance of integrated water resources management. The fundamentals and application of hydrological and hydraulic modelling in water resources management are covered, and hands-on experience with a hydraulic simulation package is provided. Special attention is paid to the access, retrieval and statistical analysis of hydrometric data time series.

Module provider

Sustainability, Civil & Env Engineering

Module Leader

MARTI-CARDONA Belen (Civl Env Eng)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 7

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 2

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

Basic algebraic background.

Module content

        CATCHMENT HYDROLOGY AND WATER MANAGEMENT

• The hydrological cycle: water storage and fluxes


• The water budget in a catchment


• Impacts of climate change and population growth on freshwater resources


• Hydrological data


• Probability of hydrological events.


• Dams and reservoirs. An overview


• Low Flow Hydrology. Reservoir capacity design


• High Flow Hydrology:
  
  
  
  • Catchment response to a rainfall event
  
  
  • Design rainfall
  
  
  • The unit hydrograph method
  
  
  • Flow routing
  
  
  
  

        HYDRAULIC MODELLING

• What is a hydraulic model?


• 1, 2 and 3 dimension hydraulic models. Examples


• Open channel flow


• Types of flow
  
  
  
  • Laminar or Turbulent
  
  
  • Subcritical, critical or supercritical
  
  
  • Steady or unsteady:
  
  
  
  


• Uniform flow


• Gradually varied flow.
  
  
  
  • Specific energy
  
  
  • Backwater profiles
  
  
  
  


• Hydraulic jumps


• Lab sessions on hydraulic modelling

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

None.

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate:

1. Understanding of the catchment water yield and budget, and ability to design storage capacity for guarantee of supply (LO 1).

2. Knowledge of fundamentals of surface water hydrological and hydraulic modelling (LO 2).

3. Ability to assess the hydrological response of a catchment to land use changes (LO 3).

4. Ability to obtain and analyse hydrological data (LO 4).

5. Capacity to build and run an unsteady hydraulic model and simulate a flood event. (LO 5).

6. Awareness of appropriate modelling techniques for a range of hydrological and hydraulic based projects (LO 6).

The summative assessment for this module consists of:

• Examination [learning outcomes: 1,2,3,6] (70%, 2 h)


• Coursework 1: development of a hydraulic model and simulation of a flood event [learning outcomes: 2,5,6] (30%, 30 h)

Formative assessment and feedback

Formative assessment will be provided during tutorials and interactive discussions in lectures and lab sessions. Students will have the opportunity to ask questions related to past examinations, coursework and also to clarify case studies given in lectures.

Written formative feedback is provided for the coursework.

The students can also have personal discussions with the lecturer after class, during walk-in sessions and by previous appointment.

.

Module aims

• • To learn numerical methods for simulating rainfall-runoff transformation.
• • To understand numerical methods and acquire hands-on experience on hydraulic simulation and flood mapping, using modelling tools such as HEC-RAS or Iber.
• The overall objective of the module is to provide students with an appreciation of integrated catchment water management, with a focus on the available spatiotemporal data sources, together with the numerical techniques and software tools for their analysis and simulation.
  Within this context, the specific aims are outlined below:
• • To gain quantitative understanding of the hydrological water cycle and catchment water balance.
• • To develop an appreciation of low flow and flood hydrology.
• • To review the reservoirs’ multiple purposes and learn to design storage capacity for supply guarantee.
• • To understand extreme event statistics and determine occurrence probabilities based on time series analysis.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to:

This module constitutes an advanced element of Civil and Environmental Engineering at FHEQ Levels 7 on the MEng programme in Civil Engineering and MSc programme in Water and Environmental Engineering. The learning and teaching strategy is designed to provide students with sound theoretical knowledge, as well as hands-on experience, on hydraulic modelling, in order to build capacity for addressing integrated water resources management projects. Sessions are illustrated with real case applications of the covered materials, in order to strengthen the student´s ability to link theory and complex, multi decision water resources problems.

 

The learning and teaching methods include:

• A set of detailed self-explanatory notes and references, which students can use to develop and deepen their knowledge of the subject and link to other modules in the programme.

• Video recordings of the lectures and lab sessions, which provide the students with the opportunity to go over the lecturer’s explanations.

• Real cases are explained to illustrate the application of each of the taught methods.

• Guided hands-on work in the computer lab for building a hydraulic model and running simulations.

• Towards the end of each lecture, the students are asked to solve practice exercises to consolidate and practice the methods explained during the class. The exercises are then solved by the lecturer on the whiteboard, seeking the students’ interaction.

• One piece of coursework will provide the students the opportunity to apply hydraulic modelling tools to an engineering case, analyse the information and evaluate results, with the lab support of the lecturer.

• Worldwide current news related to flooding events, water resources scarcity or dam failure risks are discussed in class, providing direct, up-to-date links between in-class learning and real world engineering applications.

• Guest speakers will enlighten students with the use of hydrological and hydraulic modelling techniques in real engineering problems.

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: ENGM057

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2021/2 academic year.