CIE4431 Hydrological modelling

CIE4431 Hydrological modelling – Quarter 3 – 4 ECTS
Short description: This course is suitable for students with an interest in water management that already have some knowledge of hydrology. There are computer exercises interlaced with lectures and at the end an individual assignment that is also discussed in an oral exam. It is taught by Markus Hrachowitz and Huub Savenije.

Personal experience of Maurice van Tiggelen – 2016

Due to my French background in Water management at the Grenoble Institute of technology, I chose to follow the course CIE4431 Hydrological modelling in the third quarter. It is a course given by the very enthusiastic Dr. Markus Hrachowitz and Prof. Huub Savenije, from the department of Water management.

I would definitely recommend this course for the GRS students who show an interest in water management, although some preliminary knowledge in Hydrology is required. The main focus of this course is to understand hydrological models in order to make our very own model for a particular river catchment. This course is very relevant for GRS students for several reasons: First, our experience in programming (e.g. Matlab) is very useful for the modelling. Then, all hydrological models need observations that directly come from other relevant GRS fields. For example precipitation, air temperatures (Atmospheric Science/observation!), reservoir water storage (Gravimetry), Snow and ice cover (Landsat, Radar) … I found this course very interesting because it gives a different perspective on Remote sensing applications. The outputs of all the observational techniques we are studying in compulsory GRS courses are used in the input of a hydrological model. I strongly believe this is an exciting field of research, where the increase of quality of remote sensing products will play a major role in the next years (by increasing both the quantity and quality of hydrological forecasts).