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CEES-5020-992|-993 Fundamental Hydrology - Summer 2020
This course, Fundamental Hydrology, is designed to train future water resource professionals. It is a science-based course for students who intend to be water managers, environmental scientists, or policy makers and agents of influence. Requiring only introductory calculus, the course will provide students with a quantitative introduction to atmospheric, surface and subsurface hydrology. Its purpose is not to produce hydrologists but to give students exposure to hydrology so that they can become better water managers and critical thinkers. The course will provide “big picture” understanding of the water cycle while, at the same time, give enough quantitative analysis so that the student can understand and work with more detailed hydrologic information. Integrated Watershed Management is presented and applied as a management tool. The course begins with the storage and movement of water between the atmosphere, surface water, ground water, and soil. Water movement is modeled using both a water budget and solar budget approach. We then examine how human activities can affect the natural water cycle, and how these can either protect or threaten water security, which is the ability to access sufficient quantities of clean water to maintain societal needs. These needs include adequate food production, industrial uses, proper drinking water and sanitation, and sustainable health care.