Peter Ulrich Lehmann Grunder: Catalogue data in Autumn Semester 2021

Name Dr. Peter Ulrich Lehmann Grunder
Address
Physik der Böden u. terr. Ökosys.
ETH Zürich, CHN E 35.1
Universitätstrasse 16
8092 Zürich
SWITZERLAND
Telephone+41 44 632 63 45
E-mailpeter.lehmann@env.ethz.ch
DepartmentEnvironmental Systems Science
RelationshipLecturer

NumberTitleECTSHoursLecturers
102-0527-00LExperimental and Computer Laboratory I (Year Course) Restricted registration - show details 0 credits6PD. Braun, F. Evers, M. Floriancic, N. Klein, P. U. Lehmann Grunder, B. Lüthi, S. Pfister, F. Rüsch, D. A. Silva Conde, D. F. Vetsch, L. von Känel
AbstractIn the Experimental and Computer Laboratory students are introduced to research and good scientific practice. Experiments are conducted in different disciplines of environmental engineering. Data collected during experiments are compared to the corresponding numeric simulations. The results are documented in reports or presentations.
Learning objectiveThe student will learn the following skills: basic scientific work, planning and conducting scientific experiments, uncertainty estimations of measurements, applied numerical simulations, modern sensor technology, writing reports.
ContentThe Experimental and Computer Laboratory is building on courses in the corresponding modules. Material from these courses is a prerequisite or co-requisite (as specified below) for participating in the Experimental and Computer Laboratory (MODULE: Project in the Experimental and Computer Laboratory):
- WatInfra: Water Network Management
- UWM: SysUWM + ProcUWM: Operation of Lab-WWTP
- AIR: Air Quality Measurements
- WasteBio: Anaerobic Digestion
- WasteRec: Plastic Recycling
- ESD: Environmental Assessment
- GROUND: Groundwater Field Course Kappelen
- WRM: Modelling Optimal Water Allocation
- FLOW: 1D Open Channel Flow Modelling
- LAND: Landscape Planning and Environmental Systems
- RIVER: Discharge Measurements
- HydEngr: Hydraulic Experiments
- RemSens: Earth Observation and Landscape Planning
- SOIL: Soil and Environmental Measurements Lab
Lecture notesWritten material will be available.
701-0535-00LEnvironmental Soil Physics/Vadose Zone Hydrology3 credits2V + 1UA. Carminati, P. U. Lehmann Grunder
AbstractThe course provides theoretical and practical foundations for understanding and characterizing physical and transport properties of soils/ near-surface earth materials, and quantifying hydrological processes and fluxes of mass and energy at multiple scales.
Learning objectiveStudents are able to
- characterize porous media at different scales
- parameterize structural, flow and transport properties of partially-saturated porous media
- quantify driving forces and resulting fluxes of water, solute, and heat in soils
ContentWeek 1: Introduction, soil and vadose zone, units and dimensions, definitions and basic mass-volume relationships between the solid, liquid and gaseous phases; soil water content; soil texture; particle size distributions;

Week 2: Pore scale consideration, pore sizes, shapes and connectivity, coordination number, continuity and percolation, surface area, soil structure

Week 3: Capillarity – capillary rise, surface tension, Young-Laplace equation; Washburn equation; numerical lab

Week 4: Soil Water Potential - the energy state of soil water; total water potential and its components; properties of water (molecular, surface tension, and capillary rise); units and calculations and measurement of equilibrium soil water potential components

Week 5: Soil water characteristics - definitions and measurements; parametric models, fitting and interpretation, hysteresis; demo lab

Week 6: Saturated water flow in soils - laminar flow in tubes (Poiseuille's Law); Darcy's Law, conditions and states of flow; permeability and hydraulic conductivity, measurement and theoretical concepts (Kozeny-Carman)

Week 7: Unsaturated water flow in soils - unsaturated hydraulic conductivity models and applications; Richards equation, approximations of Richards equation for steady state; approximate solutions to infiltration (Green-Ampt, Philip); outlook on unstable and preferential flow

Week 8: Numerical solution of Richards equation – using Hydrus1D for simulation of unsaturated flow; choosing class project

Week 9: Energy balance and land atmosphere interactions - radiation and energy balance; evapotranspiration, definitions and estimation; evaporation stages and characteristic length; soil thermal properties; steady state heat flow; non-steady heat flow

Week 10: Root water uptake and transpiration

Week 11: Solute and gas transport in soils; transport mechanisms of solutes in porous media; breakthrough curves; convection-dispersion equation; solutions for pulse and step solute application; parameter estimation; salt balance.

Week 12: Summary of lectures; solution of old exam

Week 13: Written semester-end exam

Week 14: Short presentations of Hydrus class projects; discussion of written exam
LiteratureSupplemental textbook (not mandatory) -Introduction to Environmental Soil Physics, by: D. Hillel
701-1673-00LEnvironmental Measurement Laboratory Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 24.

Waiting list will be deleted September 24th, 2021.
5 credits4GP. U. Lehmann Grunder, A. Carminati
AbstractMeasurements are the sole judge of scientific truth and provide access to unpredictable information, enabling the characterization and monitoring of complex terrestrial systems. Based on lectures and field- and laboratory training, the students learn to apply modern methods to determine forest inventory parameters and to measure subsurface properties and processes.
Learning objectiveThe students will be able to:
- explain measurement principles that are used for characterization of landscapes and terrestrial systems
- select appropriate measurement methods and sampling design to quantify key variables and processes above ground and in the subsurface
- deploy sensors in the field
- interpret collected laboratory and field data and report main conclusions deduced from measurements
ContentWeek 1: Plant-Soil interactions – short introduction before sensor demonstration and installation in forest lab; Scholander pressure bomb (suction in leaves); LiCOR soil chamber

Week 2: Lecture on Measurement Science, overview of water content and water potential sensors; data logging and data logger programming; tests in the lab

Week 3: Introduction on soil physics; Field installation of sensors and field experiment; data collection for a few days; solar panel

Week 4: Soil sampling in field lab including geoprobe measurements

Week 5: Introduction on forest lab - Soil sampling in forest lab; root length density;

Week 6: Lecture on geophysical methods on Subsurface Characterization: Basic principles of ERT, GPR, and EM; simple lab tests on effective resistivity

Week 7: Demonstration and application of geophysical methods in the field

Week 8: Lecture on plant soil relationship; connecting information below and above ground – data analysis

Weeks 9 and 10: Forest characterization/ inventory: Principles of LiDAR; structures and features of the tree crowns, size/volume of the leaf area tree positions and diameters at breast height

Weeks 11 and 12: Eddy covariance methods -Principles for field measurement of water vapor, carbon dioxide, and energy exchange between terrestrial surfaces and the atmosphere; Analysis of measured time series to determine evaporation rate and CO2-fluxes

Week 13: Swiss Soil Monitoring networks – Monitoring of soil water content and potential; climate change and droughts

Week 14: Global data – Global modeling and data interpretation; SoilGrids and OpenLandMap; exercises on Budyko analysis
LiteratureLecture material will be online for registered students using moodle
Prerequisites / NoticeThe details of the schedule will be optimized based on the number of students; some blocks of the course will be offered as well to students of Environmental Engineering