Undergraduate Course: Water Resources 2 (CIVE08021)
Course Outline
| School | School of Engineering |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 8 (Year 2 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | This course answers the question of how Civil Engineers assess the quantity of water available for use (potable water supply, irrigation, etc.), how they ensure the required water quantity is met and what challenges they currently face. The course hence provides an introduction to water resources, engineering hydrology and sustainable water management, and provides the foundation for further related courses in later years (e.g. Fluid Mechanics 3). It aims to introduce water resource systems, the hydrological cycle and sustainable management principles, and demonstrate the requirement for various forms of measurement and analysis. The course's objectives are to outline the principal components of water resources systems, from the standpoints of water supply, flood and diffuse pollution control, and waste disposal; and to introduce the principal components of the hydrological cycle, and describe means by which various components can be measured; basic forms of data processing and analysis are explained and presented, providing the fundamental tools for hydrological assessments and water resource system designs. |
| Course description |
Aims & Objectives
This course is intended to:
- provide an introduction to water resource systems from the standpoints of water supply, flood and diffuse pollution control, urban drainage and waste disposal;
- introduce the hydrological cycle;
- link the measurement and observation of components of the hydrological cycle with the requirements of analysis and design in water resource systems;
- introduce conservation of mass principles for application in reservoir yield and flood routing;
- introduce concepts of risk and the application of standard statistical measures and distributions;
- introduce rainfall-runoff methods, particularly in application to single event flood runoff estimation;
- introduce the unit hydrograph concept and hydrograph convolution.
Course Structure
The Hydrological Cycle and Water Resources Systems
Description of the hydrological cycle, principal components and interactions. Global distribution of water resources and of fresh water in particular. Key components of water resources systems, and an introduction to different types of data analysis required for their design. Consideration of the impact human activity can have in the water cycle.
Precipitation Measurement and Areal Estimation of Rainfall
Types of raingauges, site selection and gauge exposure; appropriate raingauge densities. Arithmetic Averaging, Isohyetal mapping, Thyssen polygons methods. Data quality control: double mass curve analysis, cross correlations.
Evaporation and Evapotranspiration
Processes descriptions and energy balance at the land surface. Methods of evaporation measurement, and climatic observations for its calculation.
Flow Measurement Structures in Rivers and Natural Channels
Design of weirs and flumes, and composite gauging structures. Ultrasonic and electromagnetic techniques. Velocity profiles, velocity measurement, discharge computation. Dilution gauging.
Rating Curve Preparation
Stage measuring equipment, stage discharge relationships.
Reservoir Storage and Yield
Direct supply and augmentation reservoirs. Components of storage, mass curve analysis and yield evaluation.
Reservoir Flood Routing
Introduction to the basis for reservoir modelling. Basic mass balance principles. Reservoir flood routing.
Application of the Normal Distribution, Basic Statistical Techniques and Extreme Value Analysis
Practical applications of the normal distribution. Statistical requirements including the normal distribution for practical and recent examples. Annual maximum series. Extreme value distributions, Gumbel distribution.
Practical Aspects of Frequency Analysis
Risk during design life and during construction.
Catchment Modelling and Flood Runoff and Routing
Rainfall-Stream Discharge Relationship; Run-off Hydrograph; Rational Method, Time-Area Method. Effective rainfall and Rainfall Hyetograph, Unit Hydrograph Technique, Synthetic Unit Hydrograph.
Introduction to Water Quality, Urban Runoff, Point Source and Diffuse Pollution Control
Analysis and discussion of recent urban runoff and diffuse pollution control examples. Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS). Water Quality Parameters. European Directives.
Tutorials: Titles & Contents
Each student will have at least one hour tutorial session per week, between weeks 2 and 10 of semester 2. The tutorial titles are as follows:
1 The Hydrological Cycle and Water Resources Systems
2 Precipitation and Precipitation Data
3 Evaporation and Evapotranspiration
4 Flow Measurements and Analysis of StreamFlow Data
5 Reservoir Yield Assessment
6 Reservoir Flood Routing
7 Statistical Analysis
8 Catchment Modelling
9 Water Quality
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Recognize the challenges faced by Civil Engineers when interacting and exploiting our natural water resources such as flooding, surface runoff pollution, sustainability issues.
- Understand and describe the major components of the hydrological cycle, appreciating the interactions between them, as well as describe and apply different techniques commonly used to measure different water fluxes such as precipitation, evaporation, river discharge.
- Apply statistical tools, quantify water discharge and design infrastructures for water resources exploitation such as reservoir design, catchment modelling, reservoir flood routing.
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Reading List
Hydrology in Practice (3rd Edition) (Recommended text book)
Shaw E. M. Chapman & Hall, London, 1994
Statistics for Technology
Chatfield C. Chapman & Hall, 1983
Applied Hydrology
Chow V. T., Maidment D. R., Mays L. W. McGraw-Hill, 1988
Streamflow Measurement
Hershey R.
Water Resources Engineering
Linsley et al. McGraw-Hill, 1992
Engineering Hydrology
Nemec J. McGraw-Hill, 1972 |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Andrea Correia Semiao
Tel: (0131 6)50 5792
Email: |
Course secretary | Mr Craig Hovell
Tel: (0131 6)51 7080
Email: |
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