Courses
IIO409

IIO409 - Hydrological Modelling (undergraduate)

👋 Description of the Hydrological Modelling undergraduate course at the Universidad de La Frontera (Temuco)

Identification of the course

  • Professional degree: Civil Engineering

  • ID and name: IIO409, Modelación Hidrológica (Hydrological Modelling)

  • Type of training: specialised, theoretical and practical

  • Weekly dedication: 4 hrs intra-classroom, 4 hrs extra-classroom

  • Faculty: Faculty of Engineering and Sciences

  • Department: Civil Engineering

  • SCT Credits: 5

  • Required courses: None ()

  • Duration: 1 semester (16 weeks)

  • Language: Spanish

Description

This elective course deepens the training of students interested in the Water Resources and Hydraulics area through instruction in the application of techniques for the mathematical simulation of the transformation of precipitation into surface runoff within a catchment. The first part of the course reviews the different types of hydrological models, their structure, and the formulation of conceptual models to represent the hydrological processes of a given catchment. Subsequently, the principal sources of in situ and satellite data are described. The course then introduces the main techniques for sensitivity analysis, calibration and validation, and uncertainty analysis of model parameters and associated outputs. Finally, the course examines the range of climate change scenarios available for Chile and analyzes their potential impacts on water resource availability at the catchment scale.

Professional skills

Design solutions to problems related to the use of water resources in engineering projects, applying solid knowledge of basic sciences and engineering, in compliance with current regulations and project specifications, and using appropriate technological tools, while demonstrating the ability to work in teams, engage in independent learning, and act with social responsibility.

Generic skills

  • None.

Learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course or module, students should be able to:

  • RA1: Develop a conceptual model that represents the hydrological processes of a catchment.

  • RA2: Select one or more hydrological models to analyse water resource availability within a near-natual catchment.

  • RA3: Quantify the uncertainty associated with model parameters and the resulting model outputs.

Contents

  1. Hydrological models. Context of hydrological modeling. Types of hydrological models. Structure of a model. Formulation of the conceptual model. Selection and implementation of the computational model.

  2. Hydrometeorological data. Existing in-situ data sources in Chile. Existing satellite data worldwide, with their respective spatial and temporal resolutions. Selection and implementation of hydrometeorological data for a hydrological basin.

  3. Sensitivity analysis. Concept. General description of local (Morris) and global (Sobol) techniques. Computational application of the Sobol technique for identifying the sensitive parameters of a model.

  4. Calibration/Optimisation. Concept. General description of local (Levenberg-Marquardt) and global (Shuffled Complex Evolution, Differential Evolution, Particle Swarm Optimization) techniques. Pareto front and the concept of multi-objective calibration. Computational application of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) to estimate the numerical values of a model.

  5. Uncertainty Analysis. Concept. General description of the Generalized Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation (GLUE) technique. Computational application of GLUE in a model.

  6. Regionalisation. Hydrological signatures. Regionalization techniques.

  7. Impacts of Climate Change. Climate change scenarios available for Chile. General description of downscaling techniques.

Bibliography

Basic bibliography

  • Beven, Keith J. (2012). Rainfall-Runoff modelling : the primer. 2nd edition. ISBN: ISBN:9780470714591. (Biblioteca UFRO).

  • Musy, A.; Hingray, B.; Picouet, C. (Eds.). (2015). Hydrology: a science for engineers. CRC press. ISBN: ISBN 9781466590595.

  • Shaw, Elizabeth M. ; Beven, Keith J.; Chappell, Nick A.; Lamb, Rob (2011). Hydrology in practice. ISBN: 9781315274904 (Biblioteca UFRO).

Supplementary bibliography

Several scientific articles.

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