Outline: hydrologic processes and effects of land use

Hydrologic processes and effects of land use

Objectives

This course has three basic goals. The first goal is to provide a rigorous understanding of hydrologic processes. Basic physical principles will be used to quantitatively analyse each component of the hydrologic cycle. The second goal is to integrate this information to understand and predict the highly variable behavior of undisturbed catchments according to the physical characteristics and weather conditions.

Thus the first part of the semester will provide a physically-based understanding of hydrologic and erosion processes. The last part of the course will focus on how natural (e.g., wildfire) and human disturbances (e.g., forest harvest, urbanization) affect each component of the hydrologic cycle. By summing each of the individual effects on each process we can begin to predict the likely impact of different land use activities on runoff, vegetation, and soils, and then how these changes will affect terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. In this way we will achieve our third and ultimate goal, which is to develop the analytical tools needed to understand each possible combination of land use practices and catchment characteristics, and integrate all of this information to predict catchment response and guide watershed management.

Texts:

Dunne, T., and L.B. Leopold, 1978. Water in environmental planning. W.H.

Freeman and Co., New York. 818 pp.

Chang, Mingteh, 2006 (2nd edition). Forest hydrology, 2nd edition. CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group, Boca Raton, Florida. 474 pp.

Other materials as distributed in class.

Grading (projected):

Homework assignments: 45%

Quizzes: 0-10%

Midterm: 20%

Final: 35%

Office hours:

Monday and Wednesday afternoons 3:00-5:00, Room 203, VFU Guesthouse

Final:

8 June at 0700-0900

Course outline and readings

The numbers in parentheses after each topic indicate the approximate number of lectures for that topic. D&L refers to Dunne and Leopold; Chang refers to the text by Chang.

Course introduction (d&L p. 3-6, with balance of ch. 1 as desired; chang pp. 67-72)

Hydrologic processes

• Precipitation (D&L Chapter 2) [Weeks 1 and 2]
• Interception (D&L Chapter 3; Chang pp. 142-149)
• Soil moisture (D&L Ch. 6) [Week 3]
• Infiltration, hydraulic conductivity, temporal and spatial variability (hand-out from
• Dingman) [Weeks 4 and 5]
• Groundwater and karst hydrology (D&L Chapter 7) [Week 6]
• Evapotranspiration (D&L Chapter 4-5; Chang Chapter 9) [Week 7]
• Energy budget (Week 7; week 8 for measurements field trip?]

Midterm

Basin-scale hydrology

• Water balance (D&L Chapter 8)
• Runoff processes (D&L Chapter9) [Week 9]
• Hydrologic modeling (rainfall-runoff) [Week 10]
• Flood predictions, particularly in ungaged catchments (D&L pp. 280-350)

Watershed management (part 1)

• Effects of urbanization [Week 11]
• Effects of forest harvest (Chang pp. 210-221)[Week 12]

Land use and water quality [weeks 13 and 14]

• Sampling procedures
• On-site physical measurements (temperature, pH, conductivity, dissolved oxygen)
• Laboratory analyses (sediment, nitrate, phosphate, hardness, alkalinity, etc.)
• Quality assurance/quality control; data plotting and reporting

Watershed management (part 2)

• Effects of roads [Week 15]
• Effects of fires
• Climate change
• Other land use topics (e.g., agriculture, buffer strips, cumulative watershed effects, etc.) according to time and interests of the class; [Week 16]

Wrap-up and conclusions [week 16]

Final

8 June 07:00-09:00