Watershed Modelling
Watershed Modelling is a practical course on numerical water balance models for a range of catchment-scale water resource applications. The course covers GIS use in watershed analysis, model types from conceptual to physically-based, parameter calibration and model validation, and analysis of uncertainty. The main aim of the course is to provide practical training with watershed models for environmental engineers. The course is built on thematic lectures (2 hrs a week) and practical exercises (2 hrs a week). Theory and concepts in the lectures are underpinned by many examples from scientific studies. A comprehensive exercise block builds on the lectures with a series of 4 practical tasks to be conducted during the semester in groups. Exercise hours during the week focus on explanation of the tasks and discussions. The course is evaluated 50% by performance in the graded exercises and 50% by a semester-end oral examination (30 mins) on watershed modelling concepts.
Content
The first part (A) of the course is on watershed properties analysed from DEMs, and on global sources of hydrological data for modelling applications. Here students learn about GIS applications (ArcGIS, Q-GIS) in hydrology - flow direction routines, catchment morphometry, extracting river networks, and defining hydrological response units. In the second part (B) of the course on conceptual watershed models students build their own simple bucket model (Matlab, Python), they learn about performance measures in modelling, how to calibrate the parameters and how to validate models, about methods to simulate stochastic climate to drive models, uncertainty analysis. The third part (C) of the course is focussed on physically-based models. Here students learn about components for soil water fluxes and evapotranspiration, they practice with a fully-distributed physically-based model Topkapi-ETH, and learn about other similar models. They apply Topkapi-ETH to an alpine catchment and study simulated discharge, snow, soil moisture and evapotranspiration spatial patterns. The final part (D) of the course provides open classroom discussion on topics learnt in class.
Course Details
- Download Content and Schedule (PDF, 109 KB)
- Language: English, ECTS: 6
- Lecturers: Prof. Dr. Peter Molnar, Dr. Scott Sinclair
- Assistant: Jovan Blagojević
- LECTURES: Monday 15:45-17:30 (science and theory), HIL E 8
> VIDEO REPOSITORY - EXERCISES: Wednesday 11:45-13:30 (explanation and free work), HIL E 8
> VIDEO REPOSITORY
- Office hours:
> Peter Molnar (HIF D 20.1): generally Fridays 14:00-17:00 open office (write Email)
> Assistant: Jovan Blagojević (HIF D Open Space): write Email