Module Information

The module begins by looking at the challenges, the trends and the available resources at the global scale. There follows an in-depth analysis of current understanding of hydrological processes at the river basin scale, from evaporation losses to water pathways in the soil and rocks, conlcuding with an introduction to methods of hydrological modelling. The relevance of these processes to real-world problems is emphasised throughout, e.g. the effects of changing vegetation and of urbanisation, and the effects of pathways on pollution.

The module concludes with a section on managing resources, covering the design of major water management systems, success and failure of large dams, dealing with floods and droughts, environmental protection and rehabilitation, international hydropolitics, environmental terrorism, the threat of corporate enterprise to equitable provisions and the predicted impact on global warming. It concludes with an assessment of the relative merits of new sources of water compared with methods of water saving.

Teaching includes computer-based practicals and a fieldtrip for each of the main sections, group researches an presentations on key issues.

1) General Introduction:

• The basic issues - the 'water crisis', environmental impacts, the role of process studies and scientifc theory in optimising exploitation and protection
• The demand curve - sources of increasing pressure on resources: domestic and municipal, industrial, agricultural and wastewater
• Global resources - the hydrological cycle, storage, distribution and limits
• Assessing resources and monitoring processes - from surface stations to satellites and weather radar

2) Environmental processes

• Evaporation, evapotranspiration and interception losses
• Effects of changing vegetation cover on water quantity
• Overland flow
• Urban effects on hydrological processes
• Water pathways in soil and rocks - infiltration, soil moisture, throughflow, pipeflow and groundwater
• Snowcover, snowmelt processes and predicting snowmelt runoff
• Streamflow modelling - black box to synthetic and physically based simulation

Practical: CAL River basin processes and modelling
Fieldtrip: CEH Institute of Hydrology experimental catchments, Plynlimon

3) Managing resources:

• Design of major water management systems - operational hydrology, integrated water resource management, strategic transfers and large dams: successes and failures
• Environmental protection and rehabilitation - pollution and water quality management: failures and successful programmes
• Hydropolitics, 'water wars' and environmental terrorism (group presentations)
• Privatisation, commercialisation and globalisation - the 'corporate threat'
• The threat of global warming - changing processes and resources, methods of estimation and management
• New sources versus conserving resources - desalination, using snow and ice resources, rainmaking vs metering, fixing leaks, controlling evaporation losses and constructing interbasin transfers (group presentations)

Practical: The roles and activities of international water related organisations, based on CD-Rom and internet searches (2000 word essay)
Fieldtrip: Water resources development and environmental impact in mid-Wales-Rheidol, Clywedog and Elan (1 day)