Calendar Description:    Introduction to the water cycle, flood frequency analysis, and design storms.  Analysis of hydrographs and rainfall-runoff response mechanisms in urban and natural systems.  Mass continuity and water budgets at the watershed scale.  Impact of land use change on hydrologic response.  Quantification and measurement of discharge in channels and pipes, subcritical and supercritical flow regimes.  Dynamic forces on submerged structures and flow/scour beneath bridges.  Erosion and sedimentation issues in rivers and reservoirs.

Course Overview and Learning Objectives: Civil and environmental engineers are often tasked with finding, moving, controlling, and protecting our freshwater resources. A solid understanding of surface and subsurface hydrology and open channel flow is needed to estimate flood risk, design urban drainage systems, manage water supplies, and a number of other tasks required by municipal, provincial and federal governments. The objectives of this course are to introduce you to theoretical and practical aspects of hydrological phenomena in the atmosphere, biosphere, and subsurface; learn how to interpret hydrological data; model water resource systems; and design simple hydraulic structures.

When the course is completed the students are able to:

1. Explain the physics of key hydrologic processes and be able to distinguish and prioritize their role in distributing water on the land surface
2. Apply the continuity equation to simple routing and budgeting problems
3. Develop design rainfall hyetographs and streamflow hydrographs for watersheds; conduct flood-frequency analysis
4. Predict streamflow given rainfall and watershed characteristics
5. Quantify the effect of land use changes on streamflow
6. Understand the role of channels (stream and rivers) in land drainage and conveyance of sediment;
7. Determine the normal depth/discharge of flow in an open channel;
8. Determine the force on objects submerged in flowing water; and
9. Determine alternate and sequent depths in channels and use these concepts to design elements such as weirs, gates, and constrictions.