Physical Hydrology in the Built and Natural Environments

Catalog description

Understanding of the physical processes of the movement of water on Earth is essential to water resource management, natural hazard assessment and mitigation. This course covers the fundamental principles governing the pathway of water in the global hydrologic cycle and emphasizes the applications of physical hydrology in both the natural and built systems. Topics include but not limited to: fluid mechanics of the lower atmosphere, free surface and subsurface flows, and groundwater outflows. These concepts will be applied to both the natural environment and systems that are responding to human modification of the water cycle due to urbanization, climate change, the construction of reservoirs, and groundwater extraction. Grades are based on individual and group assignments and a final project.