Teaching

Graduate Courses

CEE 9535 - Hydroclimate Data Analytics and Modelling for Climate Resilience

Applied quantitative, statistical and computational methods for analyzing hydroclimatic and environmental data in support of climate resilience, infrastructure design and water resources management. Students work with observed, gridded, remote sensing and climate model datasets to assess floods, droughts, design rainfall, low flows and hydroclimatic extremes under uncertainty and a changing climate. Topics include extreme value analysis and uncertainty quantification, spatial and time series analysis, Bayesian inference and MCMC, risk and reliability for climate-resilient infrastructure, IDF curves and regional frequency analysis under nonstationarity, flood frequency analysis and compound extremes, low flow and drought analysis, model calibration and global optimization, and machine learning for hydroclimate data analytics. Work is carried out in Python and R using Jupyter and R Markdown, GitHub, GIS platforms and Google Earth Engine, with open datasets including ERA5, ECCC observations and CMIP6, and is built around a semester-long research project. Offered in the Fall term. Open to CEE graduate students and, with permission, to students in Geography and Environment, Earth Sciences, Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics and other engineering programs.

CEE 9567B (with CEE 4463B) - Watershed Modelling

Concepts, techniques and software tools used to process watershed data and simulate flood hazard characteristics. Students build competence in GIS for spatial hydrologic datasets and carry out hydrologic and hydraulic modelling with ArcGIS and Arc Hydro, HEC-HMS and HEC-GeoHMS, and HEC-RAS and HEC-GeoRAS. The course moves from spatial data types, terrain development and coordinate systems through watershed delineation and stream network analysis to rainfall-runoff modelling and floodplain mapping. In a term-long project, teams set up a coupled hydrologic and hydraulic model for an assigned watershed, analyze its flood hazards and develop a conceptual flood risk mitigation plan, recognizing the scope, assumptions and limitations of the models used. Two lecture hours plus a two-hour computer lab each week, offered in the Winter term and cross-listed with the undergraduate section CEE 4463B.

 

Undergraduate Courses

CEE 4476B - Environmental Hydraulics Design

Principles of hydraulics and fluid mechanics applied to the analysis and design of environmental flows in open channels. Topics include specific energy and critical flow, momentum and hydraulic jumps, stilling basins and surges, uniform flow and flow resistance, flood control and diversion channels, gradually varied flow and water surface profiles, spillways and bridge backwater, unsteady flow and the Saint-Venant equations, and sediment transport and scour in alluvial channels. Weekly online learning modules are paired with in-person discussion and tutorials, and HEC-RAS is used for water surface profile analysis. Teams design and run a laboratory flume investigation supporting a small-group design project, reported through a progress report, a technical report and an oral presentation. Offered in the Winter term.

CEE 4463B - Watershed Modelling

The undergraduate section of Watershed Modelling, taught together with the graduate section CEE 9567B: GIS-based watershed analysis, hydrologic modelling with HEC-HMS and floodplain hydraulics with HEC-RAS, built around a term-long coupled modelling project. See the CEE 9567B description above for full details.

CIVE 440 - Hydraulics and Hydrology, University of Victoria, BC (2016)

Application of continuity, energy and momentum principles to flow in open channels and closed conduits; design of channels considering uniform flow and flow resistance, non-uniform flow and longitudinal profiles; design of channel controls and transitions; unsteady flow; theory and design of hydraulic structures. Introduction to engineering hydrology and water resource systems; estimation of design discharge; statistical analysis of extremes; impacts of climate change on the hydrologic cycle, watershed analysis, snow, runoff.