4 hours. 3 hours lecture and 3 hours lab per week.
Forest Hydrology
Analytical Thinking
Communication
Critical Thinking
Course Description
Multidisciplinary examination of the terrestrial components of the hydrologic cycle focusing on the qualitative analysis of precipitation, snowmelt, runoff generation, routing, infiltration, and subsurface flow and transport. Emphasis is on the definition of hydrologic processes, identification of hydrologic resources, development of environmental monitoring techniques, and application to hydrologic resources management.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students: Graduate students are required to complete a term paper on a subject related to hydrologic processes.
Athena Title
Forest Hydrology
Prerequisite
ENVE 4435/6435 or CRSS(FANR) 3060 or GEOL 4220/6220 or GEOG 4030/6030 or ECOL 3520 or CRSS 3050 or CRSS 4600/6600 or CRSS 4600E/6600E
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student Learning Outcomes
Students will develop a multidisciplinary understanding of the terrestrial components of the hydrologic cycle focusing on the quantitative analysis of precipitation, evaporation, snowmelt, infiltration, runoff generation, routing, subsurface flow, and water quality.
Students will learn how to query USGS Water Data and download hydrologic and water quality data.
Students will become competent in standard hydrologic and water quality analysis including evaluating data distributions, calculating water budgets, calculating constituent loads, estimating flood and drought frequencies, and estimating groundwater solute travel times.
Students will be able to apply basic statistical tests to hydrologic data.
Students will practice developing and evaluating alternative hypotheses for aquatic system behaviors and changes.
Students will understand the basic policy and governance issues surrounding water management.
Students will develop competence in verbal and written communication of hydrologic science.
Topical Outline
1. Introduction to water quality
2. Hydrologic cycle, water budgets, precipitation
3. Basic atmospheric processes, types of rainfall, seasonality, temporal and spatial variability, instrumentation, estimation
4. Evapotranspiration
5. Infiltration and soil moisture
6. Groundwater flow, Darcy’s law, types of aquifers, relationship to streamflow, unsaturated flow
7. Runoff processes and streamflow generation
8. Streamflow: Measurement, estimation, statistics; effects of urbanization
9. Introduction to fluid mechanics
10. Basic fluvial geomorphology: Sediment production and transport; relationships between physical channel characteristics and habitat
11. Special topics, including salmon, regulated rivers, channel classification, climate change, wetlands; return to water quality; urbanization/watershed planning and management; water quality protection and treatment; water quality laws and regulations
Institutional Competencies
Analytical Thinking
The ability to reason, interpret, analyze, and solve problems from a wide array of authentic contexts.
Communication
The ability to effectively develop, express, and exchange ideas in written, oral, or visual form.
Critical Thinking
The ability to pursue and comprehensively evaluate information before accepting or establishing a conclusion, decision, or action.
