Surface Water Hydrology
There
are four questions on this exam. They
are of equal credit. Do all four
questions. For each question, prepare a
2-page typed theme paper. Staple all
four papers together in the order of the questions, and turn in the result
to the EWRE secretary in ECJ 8.612 by 5PM on Thursday, May 10. This is a take-home exam. You are honor bound not to discuss this exam
with your colleagues in the class. Your
answers should be the result of your work and thought alone. Be assured that if essentially the same idea
appears in answers from more than one person, it is fairly easy to recognize
that when the grading is being done. If
that happens, it is not clear from whom the idea originated and who is just
using somebody else’s knowledge. So,
keep your ideas to yourself!
The
term papers that you choose to describe in answering Questions 1 and 2 should
be mutually exclusive, that is, if you focus on a particular term paper in
answering one of the questions, don’t focus on the same paper when answering
the other question. The term project
listing can be found at:
http://www.ce.utexas.edu/prof/maidment/gradhydro2001/termprojlist.htm
What
I am looking for in grading your answers is:
·
Knowledge of the facts. Make sure you lay out the facts of what has actually been done
before you start offering opinions about what could have or should have been
done. This particularly applies to the
discussion of term papers. Make sure
you discuss what was actually done in the term paper not just about the general
subject itself.
·
Thoughtful evaluation. How do you evaluate the advantages and limitations of the
principles, methods and data that have been used? How does the knowledge you’ve learned in this class relate to
the world around us? I am looking for
a sense of reflection here, of seeing you set individual situations and facts
in a larger context in an intelligent way.
1.
Summarize and Critique a
Hydrologic Modeling Application
Choose
a single term paper (not your own!) that you think is interesting and
effective. Summarize the content of the
paper, describing the nature of the problem examined by the author, how the
investigation was carried out, and what results were achieved. Explain why this paper appeals to you. Why
is the problem it addresses important?
What insights or new knowledge does this paper contribute? What makes
the investigation described by this paper an effective implementation of
hydrologic modeling? What makes the
presentation of the paper effective in terms of communication? How could the paper have been improved? What are the advantages and limitations of
the methods used in the paper?
2.
Compare and Contrast Two
Applications Dealing with the same Theme
Choose
two term papers that deal with the same or similar themes or topics. These papers should be different than the
paper you chose to answer Question 1, and neither of them should be your own
term paper. Briefly summarize the
contents of the papers (the problem examined, the method of analysis, the
results achieved). Compare and
contrast the approaches to the problem that the two papers took. Which technical approach do you think was
more effective? Why? Which paper does a more effective job of
communicating its results? Why? Suppose you were undertaking a study of this
same subject. Having studied these two
papers, what have you learned about how to go about your investigation
effectively? What would you do
differently from what the authors of these papers did?
3.
Assess the State of
Hydrologic Modeling of Rainfall-Runoff Processes
In
the first part of the semester, we discussed land surface – atmospheric
interaction and movement of water from land to streams. The hydrologic models used for the term
projects dealt with these subjects in various ways. Describe the problem that is to be solved and select one
hydrologic model which solves this problem.
Explain how this model transforms rainfall to runoff and moves the water
to the stream system. Assess how
effective you think this model is in performing this function. If GIS data support is used to develop
model parameters, comment on how useful you think that function is, and what
might be done to improve it.
4.
Assess the State of
Hydrologic Modeling of Streamflow Processes
In
the second part of the semester, we discussed movement of water through streams
and rivers, and erosion and sediment transport. Write the St Venant equations for flow in streams, and the
equation for shear stress at a cross-section.
Describe how the HEC-RAS model solves these equations for the discharge,
water surface elevation and shear stress at each cross-section. Compare this to the solution of the
unsteady flow equations by the SWMM model.
What are the main differences between SWMM and HEC-RAS? When would you use one model as compared to
the other? What issues of erosion and
sediment transport are not addressed by these models?