Hidrologia e Recursos Hídricos

Objectives

Understanding of the concepts and models related to climatology, hydrology water resources availability, including the global water balance and the interactions between the water cycle and the surface water resources, also in the perspective of the climate changes – signs and consequences. By the end of the course the students will be able of performing: a) the complete characterization of watersheds and river networks; b) the characterization (in terms of volumes, temporal and spatial patterns, related models and statistical approaches) of the main hydrological processes with emphasis on precipitation, evapotranspiration, infiltration and runoff; c) the statistical analysis of hydrological variables; d) the analysis of extreme hydrological phenomena (intensive rainfalls, floods and, eventually, droughts); e) the flood characterization (peak flood discharges and related hyetographs and hydrographs); f) the flood control in artificial reservoirs

Syllabus

The hydrologic cycle and the global water distribution in the Earth and in Portugal. Global water reservoirs and fluxes. The concepts of watershed, drainage network, aquifers, aquitards and aquicludes. Precipitation monitoring and areal estimation from point measurements. Evaporation and evapotranspiration monitoring and estimation. Stage and flow monitoring. Rating curves. Flow duration curves. Empirical methods for runoff and river flow estimation. Surface retention and detention. Soil water, infiltration and aquifer recharge. Piezometric level monitoring. Water balance equation and rainfall-runoff modelling. Statistical analysis of hydrologic variables. Intensive rainfalls. Floods – design rainfalls, hyetographs, hydrographs, peak flood discharges. Methods to estimate peak flood discharges and flood hydrographs. Flood routing through reservoirs. General concepts related to signs of climate change in hydrologic time series: detection, consequences, mitigation and adaptation

Prerequisites

Basic concepts about the water cycle and the natural surface processes, related to water occurrence and availability. Knowledge about: (1) topography; (2) statistical models and time series analysis; (3) geographic information systems; (4) Office tools (Excel); (5) computer language and programming skills (desirable).

Cross Competence Component

When executing the sets of assignments, students are required to work in teams and to demonstrate discipline and perseverance in completing a series of tasks. They also need to search and select for the needed data in several public information sites. Approximately 5% of the final grades can be consdered to correspond to soft skills.

Laboratorial Component

The course has a strong practical component where students apply the theoretical concepts to a case study and learn to overcome the challenges of their future professional activity. For this purpose they have to develop a project on water availability and excess water control from the beginning to the end, using real data (topographic and hydrological), obtained from public sources. This project is organized as a set of successive partial, but interconnected, assignments designed to characterize, model and evaluate the available water resources at a given watershed and to perform a flood risk assessment. To complete these assignments, students work in teams and use several computer tools, such as public databases, Excel, CAD and GIS software.

Programming And Computing Component

Although the course contributes to develop programming and computing skills, it does not yield credits. When executing the set of partial assignments that contribute to the final project the students learn how to collect, organize and manipulate different types of data, namely time series and geographical information sets, how to use CAD or GIS software to manipulate geographical information sets, how to perform statistical analysis and how to develop hydrologic models. Although the data processing is compatible with the Excel tools, the students are invited to try to implement simple computational programs.

Ethical Principles

All members of a group are responsible for the group's work. In any assessment, every students shall honestly disclose any help received and sources used. In an oral assessment, every students shall be able to present and answer questions about the entire assignment and solution.