Gestão Integrada de Bacias Hidrográficas

Objectives

To develop skills in water resources planning, protection of water bodies and aquatic ecosystems, water use licensing and management, and in the design, construction and operation of water resources systems. It also aims at developing capabilities to use mathematical models in solving planning and water management problems, including the protection and efficient use of resources. Students will be able to work with the Water Framework Directive and national water related laws.

Syllabus

1. Water and civilization. Main principles, concepts and purposes of water management. 2. Water availability, use and other pressures. 3. Water resources and territory planning. Monitoring. Fiscalization. Economical and financial aspects. Public participation. International shared waters. 4. Mathematical models to support water management. 5. Operating policies for water resource systems. Reliability, vulnerability and resilience indicators. 6. Integrated watershed management. Modelling interactions between water, soil and landuse. Biogeochemical cycles in soil and water. 7. Optimization models: linear and dynamic programming. Case studies in water management. 8. Multi-criteria analysis. The concepts of dominance and trade-off. Negotiation processes in water management.

Prerequisites

Basic concepts about (1) hydrology; (2) hydraulics; (3) water quality; (3) mathematical modeling; (4) statistical models and time series analysis; (5) geographic information systems; (6) office tools (Excel); (7) computer language and programming skills (desirable).

Cross Competence Component

When executing the sets of assignments, students aquire transversal competences on critical thinking, strategic thinking and problem solving approaches (they need to analyze results from simulation and optimization models and discuss and weight different alternatives to solve a problem), interpersonal and intrapersonal skills (they are required to work in teams and to demonstrate teamwork, self-discipline, perseverance, self-motivation skills perseverance) and information and media literacy (ability to locate and access data and information from public sources).

Laboratorial Component

The course has a strong practical component where students apply the theoretical concepts to several case studies and learn to overcome the challenges of their future professional activity. For this purpose they have to develop several assignments, using real data (hydrological and geographic), obtained from public sources. They also develop and apply simulation and optimization models (linear programming and dynamic programming). To complete these assignments, students work in teams and use several computer tools, such as public databases, Excel and GIS software.

Programming And Computing Component

When executing the set of partial assignments that contribute to the final project the students aquire abstraction and automation skills by learning how to collect, organize and manipulate different types of data, namely time series and geographical information sets, how to use simulation and optimization too and how to perform statistical analysis and how to develop hydrologic models. Although part of the data processing is compatible with the Excel tools, the students are invited to try to implement simple computational programs. The assessment percentage associated with these competences is around 10%.