Name:____________________

 

CE 394K.2 Surface Water Hydrology          Final Exam                             Spring 2005

 

This is a take home exam that is due in to my office in ECJ 8.6 by 4 PM on Friday May 13.   You are honor bound not to discuss this exam with anybody until after it is turned in so that the information presented in your answers is derived from your work alone.   There are three questions on this exam.   They are of equal credit.    The answers to questions 2 and 3 should be typed, not more than 2 pages each, and stapled to the back of this answer sheet.

 

1.  Water Balance of the Blanco River at Wimberley (USGS Site No 08171000)

 

(a)   Find the monthly mean flow (cfs) for each month of 2001 at this location on the Blanco River.

 

Month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Flow (cfs)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Explain how you arrived at these values

 

 

 

 

 

 

(b)   Find the monthly precipitation (inches) for each month of 2001 over the watershed of the Blanco River at Wimberley

 

Month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Rainfall

(inch)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Explain how you arrived at these values.

 

 

 

 

 

(c)   Find the monthly evaporation (inches) for each month of 2001 over the watershed of the Blanco River at Wimberley

 

Month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Evap

(inch)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Explain how you arrived at these values.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(d)    Suppose that the storage of water within the watershed is the same at the end of the year as it was at the beginning.     Find the annual amount of groundwater recharge (inch) that occurred in this basin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(e)    Make an assessment of the validity of your answers for (a) – (d).    What are the strengths and weaknesses of your approach?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(f)  Explain how you could independently estimate the recharge rate of groundwater in this basin.

2.    Compare and Contrast two term papers or any two lectures presented by visiting speakers in this course.   These papers or lectures should bear on a common theme.  The answer to this question should be typed and not more than 2 pages long.   Include the following:

 

(i)   A summary of the content of paper or lecture #1

 

(ii)  A summary of the content of paper or lecture #2

 

(iii)  An assessment of how each of these papers or lectures helped you to understand the nature of a hydrologic environment and/or the methods available to analyze or measure it.

 

(iv)  When you take the two papers or lectures together, how does the contrast between them help to increase your understanding as compared to either paper or lecture taken alone?

 

The term papers are linked at:

http://www.ce.utexas.edu/prof/maidment/gradhydro2005/docs/TermProj.htm

 

3.   Digital Watersheds

 

The National Science Foundation will shortly announce a competition for the construction of Digital Watersheds for hydrologic regions of the US.    This competition will be administered by Dr Douglas James of NSF whose description of an observational approach to hydrologic science was presented at the beginning of this course.  http://www.ce.utexas.edu/prof/MAIDMENT/gradhydro2005/docs/HydroScience.htm

 

A total of up 8 grants may be made in this award with each grant not to exceed $250,000.    The end result once the research for these grants has been completed will be 8 regions of the nation characterized in somewhat the same way that you have worked with the San Marcos basin (though hopefully better given the funds involved and time for improvement of methods that will occur while these grants are being executed).  Prepare a two-page typed answer that addresses the following questions:

 

(i)  What is the purpose of a Digital Watershed?

 

(ii)  What are the essential data elements of a Digital Watershed?

 

(iii)  What are the most critical functions or tools needed for building a Digital Watershed?

 

(iv) How should hydrologic models or analyses be connected to the Digital Watershed?

 

(v)  How could Question 1 on this exam be solved simply and quickly with a Digital Watershed compared to what you had to do on this exam?

 

(vi) Suppose that all 8 Digital Watersheds have been completed in a comparable fashion and are operational in different parts of the nation so that they form a Digital Watershed Network.   Imagine that all are being driven by a common set of weather and climate forcing such as is given by the North American Regional Reanalysis of climate for some time period.   How could scientific hypotheses as to the functioning of the 8 hydrologic environments be compared and contrasted using the Digital Watershed Network?

 

The questions I am asking here are not theoretical.    The above NSF competition is actually happening and I am the person who is supposed to be guiding this large national investment in hydrologic information infrastructure development.  Please provide me with your best advice and counsel as I contemplate this task!  Obviously there are no “right” or “wrong” answers to the questions I have asked here.   What I am looking for is the quality of your thinking and perspectives on this subject, about which my own understanding is not complete at present for obvious reasons.