Surface water environments are diverse and include freshwater settings such as lakes and rivers, estuaries and coastal seas and oceans. Surface water bodies typically have a free surface that is exposed to atmospheric influences (including the wind-induced stresses that can be an important driver of circulation), but many surface water problems in hydrology also include interactions with shallow ground waters in both the unsaturated and saturated zones. This course introduces the fundamental principles used to understand the dynamics of water at or near the Earth’s surface and some of the practical challenges in modelling surface water movement, with particular reference to coastal and estuarine waters and river catchments. The course focuses mainly on mechanistic hydrological and hydrodynamic models and includes an overview of some of the mathematical and computational methods used to build simple 1D models, and the application of 2D spatial models to the simulation of tidal surge flooding and climate change impacts / land cover change on river catchment hydrology.
The module aims to: - outline the principles of surface water modelling - introduce a variety of different mathematical modelling approaches, and the software available with which to implement them, with particular reference to the hydrodynamics of coastal and estuarine systems and catchment hydrology - provide ‘hands on’ experience of advanced modelling software - encourage a critical approach to the evaluation and application of model-based aquatic environmental and climate change science.
The Surface Water Modelling module commences with an introduction to hydrodynamic modelling (including numerical schemes, dimensionality, boundary conditions and the construction of computational meshes and grids). Practical exercises take students through the coding of a simple 1D tidal channel model, and the implementation of a 2D flood inundation model for an estuarine port. Hydrological modelling is introduced, with particular reference to catchment-scale model applications. The practical element for this part of the module uses the MIKE-SHE modelling system and its application to climate change or land cover change scenario simulation.
The module also covers key issues associated with the provision of boundary condition data and model validation. The main sessions include: - Hydrodynamic modelling (numerical principles, discretisation, mesh generation, boundary conditions, stability issues) - Coding of a 1D tidal model using Matlab – Use of Blue Kenue and Telemac 2D to create a flood inundation model - Hydrological modelling (catchment-scale models, data requirements, examples and applications) - Catchment modelling using MIKE-SHE - Model validation and application.
The course necessarily covers some mathematical material (mainly in the introductory lectures) and also makes use of Matlab to demonstrate simple 1D model coding. So some aptitude for and willingness to engage with this kind of material and literature is necessary. However, the assessed practical both use pre-built modelling packages and no computer coding is necessary to complete the assessment.
