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GEO4320 - Hydrological modelling

Course content

This is a Hydrological Modeling course on the graduate (master) level. As a student in the course you will learn all the important issues related to hydrological modeling including both surface water modeling and groundwater modeling. Such as historical perspective, model classification, state-of-the-art models and future development. The course is divided into two parts. Part I deals with surface water modeling and part II deals with groundwater modeling, as well as the inactions between surface water and groundwater modeling.

Learning outcomes

Knowledge
In the first part students will learn:

• how to classify hydrological models,
• how to evaluate hydrological models,
• how the principal hydrological processes are treated in simple and comprehensive models,
• what are common and unique issues in different models
• what are the application field of hydrological models in hydrology and water resources,
• how to process and prepare data files for different models
• how to use some well-known models in water resources assessment, in impact estimation of climate change and land-use change,
• how to interpret, analyse and understand the model output
• the calculation methods of runoff generation, flow routing, regional parameterization, uncertainty assessment

In the second part students will learn:

• the basic equations of groundwater flow, Darcy’s Law, Laplace’s Equation, etc
• the methods of solving groundwater flow equations analytically and numerically.
• how to use MODFLOW (A Three-Dimensional Finite-Difference Ground-Water Flow Model) model to solve groundwater problems, etc.

Skills
After the course you will be able:

• to select a suitable model class and a particular model for the problem to be solved
• to use the program of some well-known models
• to calibrate the selected models by both manual calibration and automatic optimization,
• to validate the calibrated models for different conditions, such as stationary condition, non-stationary condition, gauged and ungauged regions, etc for the purposes of record extrapolation, gaps filling, impact of climate change simulation, runoff generation in ungauged catchments, etc.
• to use the program of 2-3 carefully selected hydrological models including the HBV model.

Admission

Students at UiO must apply for courses in StudentWeb.

International applicants, if you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures for international applicants.

Prerequisites

Recommended prior knowledge

Bachelor courses in basic mathematics, statistics and hydrology/meteorology/climatology/physical geography and
GEO4310 - Stochastic methods in hydrology.

Teaching

Lectures and computer work.

Exam information

Three assignments (application of models) are examined and count 50% together. A written exam (basic questions) at the end of the course counts 50%.

The questions for the written exam will only be in english.

Assessment and grading

Course grades are awarded on a descending scale using alphabetic grades from A to E for passes and F for fail. Read more about the grading system .

External auditor: Nils Otto Kitterød

An external auditor regularly evaluates the academic quality of the course, including the form of exam used on the course.

Explanations and appeals

Students can request an explanation of their grades, and can also appeal against their grades or make a complaint about formal examination errors. Read more about explanations and appeals

Possibility of make-up exams and re-takes

You can usually resit an exam, but the conditions depend on whether you had a valid reason for absence from the regular exam. Read more about resitting an exam .

Withdrawing from exams and limits on re-takes

A student can sit for this exam up to 3 times. If a student wishes to withdraw from the exam, s/he must do this in StudentWeb at least two weeks prior to the first day of the exam. Failure to do so will be counted as one of the three opportunities to sit for the exam.

Exam options for students with special needs

Students may apply for access to alternative exam resources or exam forms on the basis of chronic illness and/or special needs that create a marked disadvantage to other students in the exam situation. Mothers who are breastfeeding may apply for extra time to complete the exam.

Other information

Auditor for this course is Professor Gunnhild Riise, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Norwegian University of Life Sciences.

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