Modern engineering approach to problems of sustainable water resources, planning and management of water allocation requires the understanding of modelling techniques that allow to account for comprehensive water uses (thereby including ecological needs) and stakeholders needs, long-term analysis and optimization. The course presents the most relevant approaches to address these problems.
Objective
The course provides the essential knowledge and tools of water resources planning and management. Core of the course are the concepts of data analysis, simulation, optimization and reliability assessment in relation to water projects and sustainable water resources management.
Content
The course is organized in four parts. Part 1 is a general introduction to the purposes and aims of sustainable water resources management, problem understanding and tools identification. Part 2 recalls Time Series Analysis and Linear Stochastic Models. An introduction to Nonlinear Time Series Analysis and related techniques will then be made in order to broaden the vision of how determinism and stochasticity might sign hydrological and geophysical variables. Part 3 deals with the optimal allocation of water resources and introduces to several tools traditionally used in WRM, such as linear and dynamic programming. Special attention will be devoted to optimization (deterministic and stochastic) and compared to simulation techniques as design methods for allocation of water resources in complex and competitive systems, with focus on sustainability and stakeholders needs. Part 4 will introduce to basic indexes used in economical and reliability analyses, and will focus on multicriteria analysis methods as a tool to assess the reliability of water systems in relation to design alternatives.
Lecture notes
A copy of the lecture handouts will be available on the webpage of the course. Complementary documentation in the form of scientific and technical articles, as well as excerpts from books will be also made available.
Literature
A number of book chapters and paper articles will be listed and suggested to read. They will also be part of discussion during the oral examination.
Prerequisites / Notice
Suggested relevant courses: Hydrologie I (or a similar content course) and Wasserhaushalt (Teil "Wasserwirtschaft", 4. Sem. UmweltIng., or a similar content course) for those students not belonging to Environmental Engineering.
Performance assessment
Performance assessment information (valid until the course unit is held again)
Performance assessment as a semester course