Course description
This online short course concentrates on the quantification of surface and groundwater hydrological processes.
An understanding of rainfall, evapotranspiration, runoff, groundwater recharge, groundwater storage, and groundwater movement is essential for those involved in the science, engineering or management of the water environment. This course provides a conceptual and quantitative understanding of hydrology and the basic principles of hydraulics as a basis for later applied studies of water quality, water engineering, and water management.
Upcoming start dates
Outcome / Qualification etc.
What you will learn
On successful completion of this short course you will be able to:
- Measure point and estimate areal rainfall,
- Estimate potential evapotranspiration from weather data and understand the relationship between actual and potential evapotranspiration,
- Differentiate between various runoff processes and identify the conditions under which each are important,
- Choose the appropriate flow measurement technique for different types of watercourses,
- Calculate the discharge of a watercourse by the velocity area method and by use of weirs and flumes,
- Construct a rating curve for a watercourse,
- Describe and conceptualise the occurrence and movement of groundwater,
- Apply Darcy’s Law to simple groundwater flow problems,
- Explain the mechanisms of groundwater recharge in different climatic environments.
Training Course Content
Core content
- The hydrological cycle and the influence of man,
- Precipitation, measurement of precipitation amount and intensity, spatial analysis. Interception and depression storage. Evapotranspiration, Penman approach, actual evapotranspiration. Runoff processes; overland flow, interflow, base flow,
- Runoff measurement; velocity area methods. Structures; hydraulic principles of weirs and flumes. Stage measurement. Rating curves and other methods,
- Groundwater occurrence: porosity, permeability, water holding formations, aquifers, aquicludes, aquifer types, aquifer boundaries, springs and streams in relation to groundwater,
- Aquifer properties: transmissivity, storage coefficient, significance and typical magnitudes of these properties,
- Groundwater recharge: processes, main methods of estimation.
Course delivery details
Course structure
This course is delivered via a mixture of online lectures, workshops and practical sessions.
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Cranfield University
Cranfield is a specialist postgraduate university that is a global leader for education and transformational research in technology and management. We have many world-class, large-scale facilities, including our own global research airport, which offers a unique environment for transformational education...