Hydrology Course Research Articles

Effectiveness of the Scientific Inquiry Learning Model Based on Local Malay Cultural Wisdom on Student Learning Interests

The aim to be achieved through research is to see the effect of implementing the Malay Culture-based scientific inquiry learning model on increasing student interest in learning. This study employed a quantitative approach and included 55 students in their third semester, divided into two sample groups. The experimental class (Class A) consisted of 27 students, while the control class (Class B) comprised 28 students.. This research was conducted in the context of the Hydrology course. Data was collected through tests and analyzed using IBM SPSS 23. After implementing the scientific inquiry learning model based on Malay culture and conventional learning, the average pretest score for student interest in learning in the experimental class was 59.77 and after being given treatment using the scientific inquiry learning model, The student's posttest score was 80.55. The results of the independent sample-test showed a significant value of 0.000, where the value was <0.05. Thus, it can be deduced that the use of the Malay Culture-based scientific inquiry learning model has a positive impact in increasing students' interest in learning.

Audiovisual methodology for engineering education in Cuba, Peru and Mozambique.

In this article, the methodological integration of the flipped classroom (FC) and problem-based learning (PBL) in the teaching of the hydrology course was developed. The research is applied with a quantitative, quasi-experimental approach. It was applied to a sample of 1846 Civil Engineering students over 10 years at universities in Cuba (UC), Peru (UP) and Mozambique (UM). The results showed that the best student satisfaction occurred at UP with 89.92%. It is concluded that the fusion of FC and PBL promotes lifelong learning that includes general and specific competencies.

Faculty perspectives on a collaborative, multi-institutional online hydrology graduate student training program

The CUAHSI Virtual University is an interinstitutional graduate training framework that was developed to increase access to specialized hydrology courses for graduate students from participating US institutions. The program was designed to capitalize on the benefits of collaborative teaching, allowing students to differentiate their learning and access subject matter experts at multiple institutions, while enrolled in a single course at their home institution, through a framework of reciprocity. Although the CUAHSI Virtual University was developed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the resilience of its online education model to such disruptions to classroom teaching increases the urgency of understanding how effective such an approach is at achieving its goals and what challenges multi-institutional graduate training faces for sustainability and expansion within the water sciences or in other disciplines. To gain faculty perspectives on the program, we surveyed (1) water science graduate program faculty who had served as instructors in the program, (2) water science graduate program faculty who were aware of the program, but had not participated, and (3) departmental chairs of participating instructors. Our data show widespread agreement across respondent types that the program is positive for students, diversifying their educational opportunities and increasing access to subject matter experts. Concerns and factors limiting faculty involvement revolved around faculty workload and administrative barriers, including low enrollment at individual institutions. If these barriers can be surmounted, the CUAHSI Virtual University has the potential for wider participation within hydrology and adoption in other STEM disciplines.

Prioritizing Engagement of a Diverse Student Cohort in Online Hydrology Learning at the University of Western Australia

Like most water education institutions worldwide, hydrology instructors at the University of Western Australia (UWA) had to rapidly adapt traditional teaching strategies to manage the COVID-19 pandemic. With diverse student cohorts, including a large fraction of international students prevented from reaching Australia by travel restrictions, key requirements from this transition were to create supportive, inclusive online educational settings, and to maximize student engagement in their courses. Here, we draw on experiences in four hydrology courses to illustrate how we used a holistic approach spanning course structure, content delivery, active learning experiences and authentic assessment to protect these key pedagogical requirements during the transition to online learning. Some aspects of this approach—for example, creating an online “virtual watershed” in lieu of field trips—required sophisticated technology to support online innovation. Other aspects, however, relied primarily on existing features in learning management systems such as Blackboard and on re-organization of course structure and communication approaches to support online learning, with minimal need for new technology or software. The outcomes in these courses as measured by student engagement, enrolment and self-reported satisfaction were positive, with student evaluations remaining similar to those of pre-pandemic levels. Previous interest in running flipped classrooms and familiarity with technology among instructors and students were helpful in enabling the transition. While content-delivery may remain in an online mode for hydrology classes at UWA long term, opportunities to re-introduce field work, laboratories and other face-to-face active learning activities are eagerly awaited by instructors and students alike.

Best Management Practices for Teaching Hydrologic Coding in Physical, Hybrid, and Virtual Classrooms

As the field of hydrologic sciences continues to advance, there is an increasing need to develop a workforce with tools to curate, manage, and analyze large datasets. As such, undergraduate and graduate curricula are beginning to regularly incorporate scientific programing in the classroom. However, there are several key challenges to successfully incorporating scientific programming into a hydrology course or curriculum, such as meeting disciplinary outcomes alongside teaching students to code, equity issues with access to computing power, and effective classroom management. While these challenges were exacerbated by the global pandemic, shifting to online and hybrid learning formats provided an opportunity to explore and re-evaluate the way we facilitated our hydrology courses and integrated coding exercises and learning. In this article, we reflect on these experiences in three very different hydrology courses (e.g., courses housed in geoscience/engineering, environmental science, and biology programs) with an eye toward identifying successes and opportunities for improvement. We explore this by presenting ten best management practices (BMPs), representing a series of recommendations we have for teaching a virtual, hybrid, or in-person hydrology course that incorporates coding. While all recommendations provided can be applied to many programming languages, the focus of the paper (given the expertise of the authors) is on R. Our BMPs focus on technological facilitation, managing the virtual classroom, and instructional resources, with lessons learned that are applicable to in-person instruction. We also summarize the ways that the authors of this article integrate coding into our coursework to serve as a framework for prepping new courses or those revising existing hydrologic coursework. Above all, we hope these series of recommendations will evolve as hydrology courses continue to emphasize computational skills alongside disciplinary learning.

Ideological and Political Design and Practice of Hydrology and Water Resources Curriculum based on Blending Learning

Curriculum ideological and political is a breakthrough and new starting point for the establishment of morality in colleges and universities, and is an effective way to train socialist builders and successors. We mainly take the geographical science professional course "Hydrology and Water Resources" as an example, starting with the curriculum ideological and political design concept, design ideas, teaching implementation and effects, and discussing the strategy of developing curriculum ideological and political under the online and offline mixed teaching mode, and It analyzes the methods in detail and methods of integrating political identity, professional ethics, professional literacy, scientific exploration spirit, dialectical thinking, scientific and cultural literacy, environmental protection awareness and other ideological and political elements before, during and after class, and implements the goal of training geography teachers to achieve the purpose of educating people for the party and educating talents for the country. Through a questionnaire survey of the 2019 students of geographic science class, the result shows that the ideological and political design and practice of hydrology and water resources courses based on the online and offline hybrid teaching of Chaoxing Xuetong have been highly praised by the students.

Design of a Small-Scale Hydrology Experiment

AbstractThis paper describes a laboratory experiment that was designed to improve engineering education in fluids and hydrology courses. The laboratory module is part of a broader effort to enhance...

Industry-Practice-Based Engineering Hydrology Education at USQ, Australia

Engineering education must embrace several challenges, such as increased numbers of work-based students, increased demand for online education, mismatches in employability skills and industry requirements, and lack of student engagement. The hydrology course at the University of Southern Queensland attracts more than 100 students every year, where more than 70% of students are off-campus and most of them are work-based. This study explored how an online hydrology course can embrace industry practice and engage students in order to achieve learning outcomes. Industrial careers in hydrology involve extensive use of hydroclimatological data and modeling applications. The course modules, learning objectives and outcomes, and assessment tools have been designed to align with industry practices. Active participation of students was observed in self-assessment quizzes and discussion forums. The course was rated very well in achieving learning outcomes and in overall student satisfaction. Students appreciated the well-structured real-world and professional practice in the course.

A Campus Lake as the Centerpiece for a Semester-Long Hydrology Course

Core Ideas A campus lake serves as the unifying thread for a watershed hydrology course. All field, laboratory, and classroom components are explicitly linked to the lake. The course provided needed data for tracking the ongoing management of the lake. Using the lake promoted a sense of personal environmental responsibility for students. In recent years there have been concerted efforts among water science educators to increase the number and quality of interactive classroom, field, and lab experiences in undergraduate water resource courses. This article reviews the transformation of a traditional lecture-based hydrology course with a global emphasis to a field-based, integrated watershed hydrology course with a local emphasis. An 11.3-hectare (28-acre) campus lake serves as the overarching and unifying basis for the entire course, with each field exercise, laboratory, and class lecture centered on quantifying the lake's water budget. The lake affords the opportunity to teach the science of hydrology by focusing on understanding and quantifying the natural physical processes that comprise the lake's water budget while considering local human impacts on this budget. Making the campus lake the centerpiece for this course (1) provides a unifying thread that links the field, laboratory, and classroom experience into an iterative, integrative whole; (2) grants students easy, convenient access to a field site that affords ample opportunities for field-based, experiential learning, class exercises; (3) gives the university necessary hydrologic data for tracking improvements to the ongoing management and restoration of the lake; and (4) helps promote a sense of personal environmental responsibility as students explore the linkages between the university's practices and the impact of these practices to the lake ecosystem.

Demonstrating the “unit hydrograph” and flow routing processes involving active student participation – a university lecture experiment

Abstract. The unit hydrograph (UH) has been one of the most widely employed hydrological modelling techniques to predict rainfall–runoff behaviour of hydrological catchments, and is still used to this day. Its concept is based on the idea that a unit of effective precipitation per time unit (e.g. mm h−1) will always lead to a specific catchment response in runoff. Given its relevance, the UH is an important topic that is addressed in most (engineering) hydrology courses at all academic levels. While the principles of the UH seem to be simple and easy to understand, teaching experiences in the past suggest strong difficulties in students' perception of the UH theory and application. In order to facilitate a deeper understanding of the theory and application of the UH for students, we developed a simple and cheap lecture theatre experiment which involved active student participation. The seating of the students in the lecture theatre represented the “hydrological catchment” in its size and form. A set of plastic balls, prepared with a piece of magnetic strip to be tacked to any white/black board, each represented a unit amount of effective precipitation. The balls are evenly distributed over the lecture theatre and routed by some given rules down the catchment to the “catchment outlet”, where the resulting hydrograph is monitored and illustrated at the black/white board. The experiment allowed an illustration of the underlying principles of the UH, including stationarity, linearity, and superposition of the generated runoff and subsequent routing. In addition, some variations of the experimental setup extended the UH concept to demonstrate the impact of elevation, different runoff regimes, and non-uniform precipitation events on the resulting hydrograph. In summary, our own experience in the classroom, a first set of student exams, as well as student feedback and formal evaluation suggest that the integration of such an experiment deepened the learning experience by active participation. The experiment also initialized a more experienced based discussion of the theory and assumptions behind the UH. Finally, the experiment was a welcome break within a 3 h lecture setting, and great fun to prepare and run.

Scientific approach as an understanding and applications of hydrological concepts of tropical rainforest

East Kalimantan has a variety of biomes, one of which is tropical rain forests. Tropical rain forests have enormous hydrological potential, so it is necessary to provide understanding to prospective teachers. Hydrology material cannot be separated from the concept of science, for it is needed the right way of learning so students easily understand the material. This research uses descriptive method with research subject is geography education students taking hydrology course at Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Mulawarman University. The results showed that the students were able to observe, ask question, collect data, give reason, and communicate the hydrological conditions of tropical rain forest biomes, especially related to surface ground water and groundwater conditions. Tropical rainforests are very influenced by the hydrological conditions of the region and the availability of water is affected by the forest area as a catchment area. Therefore, the tropical rainforest must be maintained in condition and its duration, so that there is no water crisis and hydrological related disasters.

The Effect of Modeling and Visualization Resources on Student Understanding of Physical Hydrology

ABSTRACTWe investigated the effect of modeling and visualization resources on upper-division, undergraduate and graduate students' performance on an open-ended assessment of their understanding of physical hydrology. The students were enrolled in one of five sections of a physical hydrology course. In two of the sections, students completed homework problems and projects using only Excel (Microsoft, Redmond, WA) or MATLAB (MathWorks, Natick, MA) as modeling resources, and in the other three sections, some of the homework exercises were replaced with modeling and visualization activities using the interactive modeling software COMSOL Multiphysics (COMSOL, Burlington, MA). Other aspects of the course (instructor, syllabus coverage, lectures, and textbook) remained the same throughout the study. We performed a repeated-measures analysis of variance, which showed that gains from pretest to posttest were statistically significant overall and were independent of the section in which students were enrolled for all but one component on the assessment. In that case, students who did not have access to the COMSOL modules marginally outperformed the others, but not to the required level of statistical significance. These results were complemented by a qualitative investigation of students' interaction with the modeling software. We interviewed a subset of students and assigned codes to themes that arose when we analyzed the resulting transcripts. This process allowed us to develop a theory of how students were interacting with the modeling and visualization resources. A significant theme was the issue of “scaffolding,” or supports, with both positive and negative consequences for students, depending on their personal preferences and previous experience.

Watershed modeling applications with a modular physically-based and spatially-distributed watershed educational toolbox

Introductory hydrology courses traditionally focus on process-based hydrology (i.e. precipitation, evaporation, runoff, etc.) that is ultimately unified through watershed modeling. Although physically-based and spatially-distributed hydrologic models are arguably valuable learning tools, they typically have steep learning curves and high computational costs. To overcome these common drawbacks in hydrology education, we developed the user-friendly, open-access Modular Distributed Watershed Educational Toolbox (MOD-WET). MOD-WET is a compilation of highly modular functions designed for process-based applications, which are integrated into a physically-based and spatially-distributed watershed model. When students use the toolbox to study individual processes, they become familiar with the fundamental components forming the hydrologic model. Student feedback indicates that this approach makes a holistic understanding of the water cycle more accessible to students. Hydrograph sensitivity to watershed characteristics (size, slope, roughness, etc.) is demonstrated. The capability of MOD-WET to model warm and cold land processes is also illustrated for a snow-covered basin.

Assessing student understanding of physical hydrology

Abstract. Our objective is to devise a mechanism to characterize and assess upper division and graduate student thinking in hydrology. We accomplish this through development and testing of an assessment tool for a physical hydrology class. The instrument was piloted in two sections of a physical hydrology course. Students were asked to respond to two questions that probed understanding and one question that assessed their ability to apply their knowledge, both prior to and after the course. Student and expert responses to the questions were classified into broad categories to develop a rubric to score responses. Using the rubric, three researchers independently blind-coded the full set of pre- and post-artifacts, resulting in 89% inter-rater agreement on the pre-tests and 83% agreement on the post-tests. The majority of responses made by students at the beginning of the class were characterized as showing only recognition of hydrology concepts from a non-physical perspective; post surveys indicated that the majority had moved to a basic understanding of physical processes, with some students achieving expert understanding. Our study has limitations, including the small number of participants who were all from one institution and the fact that the rubric was still under development. Nevertheless, the high inter-rater agreement from a group of experts indicates that the process we undertook is potentially useful for assessment of learning and understanding physical hydrology.

Problem‐Based Learning and Assessment in Hydrology Courses: Can Non‐Traditional Assessment Better Reflect Intended Learning Outcomes?

Hydrology has at its core a focus on real‐world applications and problems stemming from the importance of water for society and natural systems. While hydrology is firmly founded in traditional “hard” sciences like physics and mathematics, much of the innovation and excitement in current and future research‐oriented hydrology comes through intersection with other disciplines. This leads to combinations of intended learning outcomes (ILOs) in hydrology courses that may not be easily or completely achieved using traditional lecture‐based learning environments or using basic problem‐solving techniques. Problem‐based learning (PBL) may work well in hydrology courses due to the focus on real‐world applications and cross‐discipline nature of modern hydrology. Since PBL differs from traditional teacher‐centered approaches, student learning must be supported and assessed differently. This article focuses on identifying several non‐traditional assessment forms to help facilitate the use of PBL approaches in hydrology courses. We present an example hydrology modeling course employing one such non‐traditional PBL‐specific form of assessment. Further, we seek to test the hypothesis that non‐traditional assessment associated with PBL better reflects the ability of the students to achieve the ILOs in such courses. Results from the example course considered indicate that students not only preferred but also performed better in a PBL environment with its non‐traditional form of assessment. This makes a strong case for incorporating both PBL and associated non‐traditional forms of assessment into our teaching in hydrology and other applied science courses.

Leonardo pilot project for sustainable water management in Central Europe

This program is not intended to replace education in individual fields such as engineering, or biology, but rather to enhance the knowledge of issues related to sustainable water management and flood control for university graduates and water and environmental management professionals. Based on the testing and evaluations, the approach used in the modules design is effective, primarily because of its simplicity and similarity to the normal lecture format. The aids for studying the materials (highlighting, notes, hyperlinks, etc.) were all found to be very useful. Variations of the course modules, at different levels, can serve as a general introduction to sustainable water management for technical staff, administrative staff, planners, higher-level managers or other interested parties. It can also serve as an adjunct to other programmes, or can be used as a foundation for more advanced courses (e.g. Advanced Hydrology courses) by building on the general water management background from the WLPP.

Book Reviews: Forest Hydrology: An Introduction to Water and Forests

Abstract In recent years, water resource issues concerning quality, quantity, and timing have been dominating natural resource management discussions around the world. Forest hydrology has historically been an important topic in forest management leading to some of the earliest forest research conducted in the United States. While there are a few textbooks on forest hydrology, there has always been a dilemma in what to include in such books. The hydrologic cycle may be briefly covered in ecology courses. However, without a significant introduction to water resources, most forestry and nonforestry students who enroll in a forest hydrology course do not have sufficient background in water resources to really understand the effect forests have on water quality, quantity and timing. A textbook for most forest hydrology courses should not only cover topics on forest impacts on water but also provide the basics of water properties, movement, and storage in the atmosphere, soil matrix, and surface water bodies. Putting both major topic areas in one manageable textbook requires trade-offs that do not dilute either subject area too much, but rather skillfully blend the two together. Mingteh Chang has done just that in writing this book.

Fishing for a New Way to Teach Environmentally Sensitive Engineering Practice

Professional engineers are under increasing pressure to practice in an environmentally sensitive way. To prepare engineers for this new reality, changes in engineering education are needed. For example, engineering hydrology has traditionally been taught with an emphasis on the interpretation of numerical data bout rainfall and runoff in watersheds. However, to do environmentally sensitive hydrology work, it is necessary to also understand the life forms that share the watershed. In 1997, a project was undertaken in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Toronto to enhance an introductory hydrology course by adding information about how hydrological phenomena affect fish. Through carefully structured assignments and exam questions, an assessment was made of the effectiveness of the enhancements in increasing students’ awareness of the life context of hydrology. The project has resulted in a commitment to increased environmental information in the hydrology curriculum, and the implementation of an assessment process for all students, to monitor changes in their environmental knowledge and attitudes. It has also raised questions about ultimate objectives in engineering education.

A SURVEY OF HYDROLOGY COURSE CONTENT IN NORTH AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES1

ABSTRACT: This report presents the results of a survey of hydrology faculties of colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. Information is presented on topics covered in classes, allocation of class periods to individual topics, textbooks, prerequisites, computer use, and accreditation categories for hydrology courses offered by engineering departments. Hydrology courses generally require courses in fluid mechanics, mathematics, statistics, and computer science as prerequisites. Topics that receive the largest allocation of time in both introductory and advanced courses include rainfall‐runoff relations, the hydrologic cycle, routing and open channel flow, and statistics. Advanced courses place greater emphasis on watershed models than do the introductory courses. Hydrology courses at both levels allocate the smallest amounts of time to snow hydrology ground‐water hydrology, and “other topics.” Very few courses include field or experimental work. In a discipline where computer modeling is a major tool, this lack of field and data‐collection experience may lead students to underestimate the uncertainties associated with data used to calibrate models and the modeling results themselves.Survey responses on hydrology courses taught in departments other than civil engineering were too few to permit detailed analysis. Most of these courses spend approximately two‐thirds of available class time on the same topics as presented in engineering hydrology courses. The balance of class time is spent on topics that emphasize the specialized interest of the particular discipline, such as soil physics and soil moisture in agricultural engineering.

Problem orientation in physical geography teaching

Abstract Physical geography is practised and taught mainly in a descriptive‐explanatory mode. Adoption of an analytic‐predictive mode improves scientific rigour and leads more directly to applied studies. The introduction of real, quantitative problems in classroom and field teaching serves this end. The paper illustrates the use of problems in a university introductory hydrology course. Teaching objectives and the full course structure are presented in order to show how problem solving may be integrated with other teaching modes to serve the course objectives.