GEO4340 - Fluvial hydrology

Course content

The main aim of GEO4340 is to gain a basic understanding of the physical laws and forces that govern open channel flow. The course introduces the structure and properties of water, forces and mechanical energy, uniform flow in open channels, flow resistance, gradually and rapidly varied steady flow, flood zone mapping, gradually varied unsteady flow and flood routing (the Saint-Venant’s equations).

Learning outcome

After the course you will have the following competence:

• Understand and be able to quantitatively describe the main forces and physical conditions that control the movement of water (velocity and depth) in open channels (river flow and overland flow)
• Familiar with the physically based equations that describe the movement of water in open channels, including water-surface profile calculations and Saint-Vernant’s equations
• Perform, evaluate and present hydrological calculations
• Experience with field work (discharge measurements) and the use of observations in hydrological calculations
• Detailed knowledge of a selected topic (summarise and present a scientific paper)

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 previous knowledge

GEO2010 - Surface hydrology/HYD2010 - Surface hydrology (discontinued)

Overlapping courses

10 course points with GF243

Teaching

Lectures (2 hours a week), exercises/seminar (2 hours a week), fieldwork collecting river flow data (half day) and visit to NVE (half day). Active participation of the student is expected.

Examination

Written assignment based on field data (counts 40%), seminar presentation of a special topic (counts 20%) and final oral examination (counts 40%). All parts must be passed.

Grading scale

Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail. Read more about the grading system.

Explanations and appeals

You may request an explanation of your grades, and you may also appeal against your grades or make a complaint about formal examination errors. Read more about explanations and appeals.

Withdrawal from an examination

A student may sit this exam up to 3 times. If a student wishes to withdraw from the exam, s/he must do so 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 the exam.

Special examination arrangements

If you have a disability or a health problem that entails significant inconvenience in an examination situation, you may be considered for special examination arrangements. Mothers who are breastfeeding may apply for extra time to complete the exam.

Evaluation

Feedback from our students is essential to us in our efforts to ensure and further improve the high quality of our programmes and courses. All courses are subject to continuous evaluation. At regular intervals we also ask students on a particular course to participate in a more comprehensive, periodic evaluation of this course.

This course was periodic evaluated in spring 2012 (pdf)