Modules

Prerequisites

Contents

LE Impacts on surface waters and water management Water balances, conservation equation, catchments; energy and water balance as a coupled system; feedback of organisms on water quality, main water quality problems, production and interaction of organisms with hydrophysical factors; main impacts to the water resources, technosphere and production in the catchment, pathways of main pollution of ground and surface waters, concepts of an integrated description of water quantity and water quality at catchment scale; impact of lignite mining on water quality; impacts of erosion on water quality; impacts of agriculture and forestry on water quality. Principles of sustainable water management. EU water framework directive, quality assessment and valuation, utilisation and physical degradation of streams and rivers, possibilities for mitigation and restoration, main water quality problems in lakes (eutrophication, acidification, salinisation, contamination), sediments as sources for internal nutrient loads in standing waters, classification approaches for assessment of impacts to surface standing waters. LE / Ex Groundwater Management Vulnerability and activities to protect groundwater resources; groundwater resource management, introduction in European laws and regulations, methods to estimate groundwater balance, present groundwater use and exploitation, groundwater quality, quality factors groundwater contamination, influence of diffuse and point sources. The topics of the lecture will be supported by exercises and an excursion.

Learning outcomes

The module will give an integrative overview of surface water and groundwater management strategies based on hydrology of surface water and groundwater and on surface water ecology including an outline of the main impacts on the freshwater resources. Assessment systems for water quality will be presented. Students gain an understanding of water quantity and quality management. Main impacts to the freshwater resources as well as their consequences on ecology and use of freshwaters (drinking water supply, recreation, transport, nature conservation, storage and flood protection) shall be known. The options and methods of surface water and groundwater conservation/management shall be understood. LE Impacts on surface waters and water management Water balances under human influence (e.g. water abstraction, irrigation and drainage, artificial recharge, river bank filtration, floods and droughts); understanding water resources; principles of sustainable water management in terms of quantity and quality; main water quality problems in lakes and running waters (e.g. contamination, saprobisation, eutrophication); impacts of erosion, agriculture, urbanization and civil engineering; EU water framework directive, quality assessment, principals of restoration. LE Groundwater management Knowledge on groundwater systems, understanding the main threads to the resource and the basic approaches to groundwater protection. Students will know the methods to assess groundwater balance. They will have a general overview on use of and impacts on groundwater, knowledge about the quality factors relevant to estimate groundwater contamination, knowing the main diffuse and point sources. Groundwater resource management will be practised, an outline of the European laws and regulations given.

Assessment

• Written examination of 120 min, one part covering the learning content of surface waters and one part covering the learning content of groundwater (60 min each part) • Essays and presentations in the exercises in groundwater management • Three assignments in part groundwater • One assignment in part surface waters have to be submitted for module completion Results of the exams will be weighted as follows: 50 % part surface waters, 50 % part groundwater.