Water Management

Course manual 2021/2022

Course content

Freshwater is one of the most important resources for mankind, and the amount of fresh water on Earth is limited. Furthermore  water is not equally distributed both in time and space. Consequently, some places have too much water, while others have too little water. Water on Earth is also heavily impacted by anthropogenic activity, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Humans have altered global hydrology, through many local and regional, small and large interventions, such as the construction of dams, the change of river flows, water transfers, groundwater use and irrigation. Managing chemical pollution, e.g. via the treatment of wastewater, is often necessary to preserve essential resources. This course will focus on aspects of water management in both humid and dryland regions, hence in areas with excess water and in areas with water shortages. You will work on examples involving practical cases directly related to water management issues from the Netherlands, Europe and other parts of the world. 

The course is structured in two parts.

Part 1 has three sections:

Part 1a. Climate change and desertification

Part 1b. Human-water interactions

Part 1c. Managing environmental pollution in aquatic systems

Part 2 is a computer modeling tutorial, where you will learn how to apply a model to a specific water catchment: The Rhine watershed.

Part 2. Global change and catchment hydrology

All classes/practicals and the computer tutorial are completely in person. Lectures will not be recorded, and participation in all sessions is mandatory!

Study materials

Practical training material

• will be provided during the course

Software

• R

  Aquacrop

Objectives

• Has obtained knowledge of hydrology, water resources and the hydrological cycle and components, including the behaviour of water in the soil.
• Understands the physical principles behind hydrological processes and the function of these processes in landscapes.
• Understands how these processes can be applied in water management applications in a societal context.
• Is able to apply the principles of water resources in selected case studies.
• Understands the main emission sources of chemical pollutants to surface waters.
• Has a basic understanding of wastewater treatment.
• Is able to apply conceptual and computer models to  study examples in water management and hydrological response at various environmental conditions and scales (soil, landscape and large catchment).
• Understands the extent of human alterations to local and global hydrology, how the human impact on water systems has evolved throughout history and what the consequences are today.

Teaching methods

• Computer lab session/practical training
• Presentation/symposium
• Lecture
• Seminar

10 lectures of 2-4 hours  each
8 (computer)practicals of 2 hours
Participation in lectures and practicals is mandatory.
Independent preparation of assignments

Learning activities

Attendance

Programme's requirements concerning attendance (OER-B):

• Participation in fieldwork is compulsory and cannot be replaced by assignments or other courses.
• In case of practical sessions, the student is obliged to attend at least of 90% of the sessions and to prepare himself adequately, unless indicated otherwise in the course manual. In case the student attends less than 90%, the practical sessions should be redone entirely.
• In case of tutorials/seminars with assignments, the student is obliged to attend at least 7 out of 8 seminars and to prepare thoroughly for these meetings, unless indicated otherwise in the course manual. If the course has more than 8 seminars, the student can miss up to 1 extra meeting for every (part of) 8 tutorials/seminars. If the students attends less than the mandatory tutorials/seminars, the course cannot be completed.

Additional requirements for this course:

All sessions of this course are mandatory.  

If you miss more than 1  class unexcused* (for each of part 1 or 2) you will fail for that part.

The exam and presentation are also mandatory. If you miss these then you will fail for that part.

For the second part the assignments is done in small groups of 3 persons. Each group should contain (at least) two students who did the BSc course Programming in R, and one who did not this course.

*If you cannot join a session of this course, you must email the coordinator BEFORE the beginning of the class. Excuses received after the class count as 'missed unexcused'.

Assessment

You will complete exercises/assignments given during the practicals and the respective teacher will inform you about which ones to upload to Canvas. There will be peer-reviewing of those materials.

There will be an exam on the lectures, materials and practicals of Part 1.

For part 2 there will be a written report and a presentation on your project to be completed as a group.

There are no re-takes for the separate assignments and tests.  If you do not pass (the final mark is less than 5.5), then there is only one re-take where ALL material together (from parts 1 and 2) will be tested again. If deadlines for assignments are not met then the mark will be 1.0 for that assessment. Any missed assignments will be marked as 0.

Students that were enrolled in the course in previous years

If you did not pass last year's course, you can retake the exam. If you passed last year's part 3 (computer practical), but failed the exam, you can take the exam at the end of part 1 this year. Alternatively (e.g., if you cannot make it to the exam at the end of part 1, or if you failed both parts), you can take this year's retake exam, which will cover this year's material of part 1 and 2 (lectures/seminars and computer practicals).

If your mark for Part 3 (Report and Presentation) was larger than 5.0 in the previous year, this mark can be used for the final grading. Part 1 has to be followed again, and completed in such a way that the final mark based on the new partial mark of Part 1 and the old mark of part 3 add up to at least a 5.5.

Assignments

The assignment of part 2 will be described in a separate document, published on Canvas

Fraud and plagiarism

The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl

Course structure

Timetable

The schedule for this course is published on DataNose.

Additional information

Knowledge of R is strongly recommended, e.g. obtained from the course Programming in R.

If you don't have knowledge of R, completion of the R primer, available on Canvas, should be completed

R should be installed and running on your computer prior to the start of the course

• Downloading Software: you can download software from datanose.nl/byod.
• Support for software installation and other Bring Your Own Device questions
  • Contac: laptops-fnwi@uva.nl
  • Software support: Tuesday and Thursday from 12.00 – 13.00 hrs at B1.16 (right from the library desk)
  • Borrow a laptop: FNWI students can rent a laptop at the library desk for €5,- per day. The laptops include MS Office and Adobe Acrobat and can be rented between 9.00 and 20.00 hrs. You are allowed to install your own software on the device. The laptop comes with a laptop bag, charger, mouse, lock and HMDI-cable. Documents and software are deleted after return.

Last year's course evaluation

In order to provide students some insight how we use the feedback of student evaluations to enhance the quality of education, we decided to include the table below in all course guides.

Contact information

Coordinator

• Elisabeth Krueger

Staff

• dr. E.H. Krueger
• dr. A. Praetorius
• dr. L.H. Cammeraat
• Donya Danesh
• Emma Polmann
• Edith Eder