Lecturer: Ugo Moisello  

Course name: Advanced hydrology
Course code: 502947
Degree course: Ingegneria Civile, Ingegneria per l'Ambiente e il Territorio
Disciplinary field of science: ICAR/02
L'insegnamento è caratterizzante per: Ingegneria Civile, Ingegneria per l'Ambiente e il Territorio
University credits: ECTS 6
Course website: n.d.

Specific course objectives

The course integrates the notions of hydrology already owned by the students (and mainly utilized for estimating flood discharges by means of the simplest methods) with those necessary for designing important projects of water resources exploitation and for preparing master plans.

Course programme

Lectures (hydrology)
(30 hours)

• Energy exchanges between the Earth and the outer space. The standard atmosphere. Atmospheric stability. The atmospheric pressure distribution.
• Air masses and fronts. Winds and jet-streams. The relation between pressure gradient and wind speed. The general circulation of the atmosphere. Hadley's cell, polar cell and Ferrel's cell. Origin and development of extra-tropical cyclones. The influence of orography on the atmospheric circulation. The effect of water masses. Marine currents. Monsoons.
• Regional statistical analyses of floods.
• The probable maximum precipitation (part 1).
• The probable maximum precipitation (part 2).
• Irrigation water requirements.
• The complete models of the rainfall-runoff process. The model of Dawdy and O'Donnel.
• Clark's, routed triangle (O'Kelly's) and routed rectangle models. The use of dimensionless moment diagrams for choosing the model. Discussion of Nash's model.
• The unit hydrograph and Snyder's synthetic unit hydrograph. Nash's method for determining a synthetic instantaneous unit hydrograph. McSparran's method for determining a synthetic flood model.
• The study of water availability.
• Run-of-river power plants and reservoir regulation.
• The minimum acceptable flow.
• Flood routing. De Saint Venant's equations. Simplified forms of the energy equation.
• Kinematic and parabolic models.
• The solution of De Saint Venant's eqiations (short description). Linearized models. Hydrological models: Fantoli-De Marchi and Muskingum methods. Black-box models (short description).

Lectures (statistics)
(8 hours)

• Multivariate probability distributions.
• The regression and the linear regression.
• The multivariate normal distribution. The regression in the case of the multivariate normal distribution. The choice of the variable in linear regression problems.
• Stochastic processes. Thomas-Fiering model.

Laboratories
(14 hours)

• Lab. n. 1 (part 1). Determination of the peak discharge with an assigned return period with the index flood method.
• Lab. n. 1 (part 2, in computer room). Determination of the peak discharge with an assigned return period with the index flood method (use of program REGIONE).
• Lab. n. 2 (in computer room). Use of a complete model of the rainfall-runoff process for determining daily flows (use of program DAFNE).
• Lab. n. 3 (part 1, in computer room). Determination of some hydrological relations using a multivariate regression approach (use of program FORW).
• Lab. n. 3 (part 2, in computer room). Determination of some hydrological relations using a multivariate regression approach (use of program FORW).
• Lab. n. 4 (part 1, in computer room). Determination of the peak discharge by means of a synthetic instantaneous unit hydrograph (use of program PIENE).
• Lab. n. 4 (part 2, in computer room). Determination of the peak discharge by means of a synthetic instantaneous unit hydrograph (use of program PIENE).

Course entry requirements

MATHEMATICAL ANALYSIS, GEOMETRY AND ALGEBRA, PHYSICS, COMPUTER SCIENCE: The same requirements as for the course of Hydrology. HYDRAULICS: Different types of motion (uniform, steady, unsteady). The hydrostatic pressure distribution. The continuity equation. Bernoulli's theorem. Resistance formulae. The main characteristics of open channel flows. Subcritical and supercritical flows, critical state. Steady motion profiles. HYDROLOGY: Basic vocabulary and units of measurements. Precipitations. Precipitation measurements. The dependence of rainfall depth on duration and area. The hydrographic basin. Basin losses (evapotranspiration, infiltration) and different forms of water storage. Practical methods for determining basin losses. The surface runoff. Discharge measurements. The rainfall-runoff process: different model types. Linear and stationary models. The instantaneous unit hydrograph. The linear channel and the time-area model. The linear reservoir and Nash's model. STATISTICS: The concepts of random variable and of probability. The basic axioms of probability calculus. The return period. The principal probability distributions (normal, lognormal, Gumbel's). The concepts of sample and of frequency. Estimation of the probability function. Parameter estimation: the method of moments. Probability papers. Tests of hypotheses. Pearson's test of fit.

Course structure and teaching

Lectures (hours/year in lecture theatre): 38
Practical class (hours/year in lecture theatre): 14
Practicals / Workshops (hours/year in lecture theatre): 0

Suggested reading materials

The computer programs, the transparencies used for the lessons and the notes relevant to lessons and laboratories can be found in internet and downloaded.

Chow, V.T., Maidment, D.R., Mays, L.W. Applied Hydrology. New York, Mc Graw-Hill Book Company, 1988.

Linsley, R.K., Kohler, M.A., Paulhus, J.L.K. Applied Hydrology. New York, Mc Graw-Hill Book Company, 1949.

Maione, U., Moisello, U. Elementi di statistica per l'idrologia. Pavia, La Goliardica Pavese, 1993.

Moisello, U. Idrologia tecnica. Pavia, Medea, 2014 (Archimede 3).

Testing and exams

The exam is composed of a written test and an oral one. The oral test can be taken only if the written one has been passed (in the same scheduled exam). If the written test is passed, the student can make use (in the same scheduled exam) of the result of the written test to pass the exam, without taking the oral test. In this case, however, the registered mark can not be higher than 27/30, even if the written test mark is higher.