- Docente: Elena Toth
- Credits: 6
- SSD: ICAR/02
- Language: Italian
- Moduli: Attilio Castellarin (Modulo 2) Elena Toth (Modulo 1)
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures (Modulo 2) Traditional lectures (Modulo 1)
- Campus: Bologna
- Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Civil Engineering (cod. 8211)
Learning outcomes
A successful learner from this course will be able to: analyze the main issues of water availability/demand problems; design and apply techniques and policies for the management of water resources, in particular facilities for river basin development, flood control and water supply; understand current and emerging trends in methods and technology for the management and operation of water resource systems.
Course contents
Overview of water resources planning and management issues, historical perspective and international case studies. Water uses and needs, water rights and allocation.
Assessment of water resources: acquisition and processing of water resources data, open databases, data analysis and validation.
Flow-duration curves: interpretations and application to water-resources management problems. Prediction of streamflow indices in ungauged basins.
Remote sensing of water-related variables. Drought monitoring and warning: hydrological and meteorological drought indexes.
Water Resources Systems Analysis: economic benefit-cost analysis, simulation and optimization. Reservoir planning and management (sizing, operation, estimation and control of sedimentation).
Flood Risk Management: measures to reduce flooding and its impacts; non-structural measures: flood mapping and floodplain management; forecasting and warning, managing flood emergencies.
Readings/Bibliography
There is not a required textbook for the course. Reading material will be assigned from a combination of book chapters, review articles and research papers, among which:
-Loucks, D. P. and Ellco Van Beek (2005) Water Resources Systems Planning and Management : An Introduction to Methods, Models and Applications., UNESCO, Netherlands.
-WMO (2008). Guide to Hydrological Practices. WMO No. 168. World Meteorological Organization, Geneva.
-Jain, S.K., and Singh, V.P. (2003). Water Resources Systems Planning and Management. Elsevier, Amsterdam.
-Grimaldi, S., S.C. Kao, A. Castellarin, S.M. Papalexiou, A. Viglione, F. Laio, H. Aksoy, A. Gedikli (2011): Statistical Hydrology. In Treatise on Water Science. (479 – 517). ISBN: 978-0-444-53199-5. OXFORD: Elsevier (UK).
-Castellarin, A., G. Botter, D.A. Hughes, S. Liu, T.B.M.J. Ouarda, J. Parajka, D. Post, M. Sivapalan, C. Spence, A. Viglione and R. Vogel (2013): Prediction of flow duration curves in ungauged basins, Chp. 7 in Runoff Prediction in Ungauged Basins: Synthesis across Processes, Places and Scales (Eds. G. Blöschl, M. Sivapalan, T. Wagener, A. Viglione, H. Savenije, ISBN-13: 9781107028180, 19 April 2013, pp. 135-162.
Handouts on the topics covered in the course, exercises and their draft solutions in R scripts (The R Project for Statistical Computing) are published in the collection AMS Campus - AlmaDL University of Bologna only for registered students and during the classes.
Teaching methods
Frontal lectures
Seminars with experts
In-Class exercises and Homeworks: practical activities (i.e. computer programming and use of specific software) using Matlab or cross-platform Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS), that can be installed on all major operating systems.
Assessment methods
Students will be evaluated based on class participation, in-class exercises and homeworks and a final oral exam
Teaching tools
Computational tools: introduction to the R-project, R programming environment and practical computational examples. Hydrological GIS tools: automatic watershed delineation and characterization with GRASS GIS.
Office hours
See the website of Elena Toth
See the website of Attilio Castellarin