Hydrology and Water Resources Management Group...Institute of Environmental Engineering (IfU) Chair...

||Institute of Environmental Engineering (IfU)Chair of Hydrology and Water Resources Management

Hydrology and Water Resources Management Group

Master Theses Topics

AS 2019http://www.hyd.ifu.ethz.ch/ 1

Maggia Valley, Switzerland


Research Fields: Hydrological processes in Alpine environments Fluvial systems and riverine processes Ecohydrology Hydrological extremes and natural hazards Climate change impacts Water resources management Sustainable water use

Research Methods: Numerical watershed modelling Lab and Field measurement and monitoring Stochastic processes Statistical data analysis and interpretation


Hydrology and Water Resources Management GroupProf. Paolo Burlando, hydrology and water resources managementProf. Peter Molnar, hydrology and fluvial systems


It should address a scientifically and societally relevant problem in hydrology and water resources management in Switzerland or globally.

It should formulate research hypotheses and exercise methodologically appropriate investigations from which conclusions are drawn.

It should use advanced state-of-the-art analysis methods (models, data) and in-depth interpretation to advance knowledge in the field.

It should provide an engineering-relevant synthesis addressing how the results can be used in practice.

It should foster skills of independence, innovation, interpretation, and professional presentation.


Aims of Master Theses in HWRM

What should your MS Thesis aim to achieve?


1. Each slide here presents one MS Thesis topic. Select a topic and meet the indicated supervisor for a more detailed description. Do this early in the selection process. Variations in the proposed topics are permitted and your own input invited and encouraged.

2. Prepare a 2 page MS Thesis research plan which broadly outlines: (a) the definition of the problem; (b) the methods which will be used to address it; (c) the expected results. Discuss/improve this document with the supervisor.

3. Once you have the agreement of the supervisor sign up in ETH MyStudiesfor the Thesis with a supervising professor and upload your research plan.

4. Start date: Spring Semester beginning (with flexibility 1 week)Duration: 6 months (excl. holidays), i.e. to beginning of SeptemberPresentation: in the last 2 weeks (end of Aug to beginning of Sept)Poster and Report: due at the end of the assigned Thesis window

For further information contact the Teaching Assistant.


Process of Selecting a MS Thesis

||Institute of Environmental Engineering (IfU)Chair of Hydrology and Water Resources Management AS 2019http://www.hyd.ifu.ethz.ch/ 5

Goals (several Theses possible):

Quantification of physical habitat alterations by numerical simulation (BASEMENT 2d)

Analysis of morphological change, gravel bar mobility and sediment transport

Investigation of conditions for riparian vegetation establishment by modelling

Requirements: BASEMENT 2d, GIS, data analysis

Hydro-morphological assessment of Alpine rivers (Maggia, Ticino) and their ecosystem servicesSince the 1950s, the natural streamflow regime of the Maggia and Ticino rivers has been strongly affected by streamflow regulation due to hydropower operation. This research will aim at quantifying the impacts of regulation on river ecosystem services, changes in aquatic habitat, sediment transport, riparian vegetation, etc.

Supervisors: Peter Molnar ([email protected]), Annunziato Siviglia ([email protected])

Temporal evolution of alternate bars (Patrissi, 2018)

mailto:[email protected]



Goals:

Calibrate and validate Topkapi-ETH on the Thurcatchment.

Quantify shifts in the pdf of streamflow from station data and simulations along the river.

Conduct uncertainty analysis to quantify the sensitivity to climate (precip., temp.).

Requirements: basic GIS skills, modelling, data analysis skills

Supervisor: Peter Molnar ([email protected])

Attribution of changes in streamflow by hydrological simulation (Thur R.)Shifts in the probability distributions of daily (hourly) streamflow are often visible in hydrological data and attributed to environmental changes (climate, landuse, etc.). Watershed modelling provides us a tool by which we can quantify the uncertainty in such assessments by simulation (example Thur R.).


Identify contributions to discharge by end-member mixing analysis

We will use hydrogeochemical programs (e.g. PHREECQC) to evaluate the contribution from different groundwater sources (variable geology / lithology) to surface discharge. End-member mixing analysis will allow quantify the contribution of each source, as well as to perform hydrograph separation by water chemistry.

Goals:

calculate saturation for different mineral species in water samples from a database for Alpine catchments

perform water mixing calculations to separate contributions from different sources and reduce uncertainty in end-member concentration

( - sampling campaign in an high Alpine catchment)

Requirements: interest in: geochemistry, transport processes, hydrological processes

Supervisors: Marius Floriancic ([email protected]) Joaquin Jimenez-Martinez ([email protected])Peter Molnar ([email protected])


Goals: Different main Topics can be analysed. The assignment of tasks will be done individually. Possible topics are: Analysis of soil temperature behaviour in different

depth, dependent on agricultural crop, soil tilling etc. Soil water balance. Analyse Tensiometer- and FDR Data. Dew formation and its relevance in the water balance. Correlation of evapotranspiration and dendrometer

measurements.Requirements: Some basic MATLAB knowledge is helpful.Supervisors: Peter Molnar ([email protected]), Luzia von Känel ([email protected]), Volker Prasuhn (ART Reckenholz)

Analysis of lysimeter data (ART Reckenholz) with different soils and agricultural cropsThe Lysimeter station at Agroscope Reckenholz offers, with its 72 Lysimeter whereas 12 are weighable, a huge database for different questions in the field of hydrology and environmental science.


Goals:

Generate a validation data set for land cover classification (irrigated/non-irrigated).

Systematically map irrigation activities and changes over time on the national scale.

Requirements: data analysis and programing skills

Supervisors: Silvan Ragettli ([email protected]), Peter Molnar ([email protected])

Remotely-Sensed Mapping of Irrigation Area in Central Asia with Google Earth EngineGoogle Earth Engine (GEE) is a powerful tool to swiftly process petabytes of high resolution remote sensing data. HydrosolutionsLtd. has implemented a method in GEE to automatically map irrigation area based on Landsat 7 and MODIS satellite data and to track changes over time. Our results for the Chu-Talas basins in Kazakhstan/Kyrgyzstan reflect the gradual rehabilitation of the existing irrigation systems that were partly abandoned after the demise of the Soviet Union. In this project the student is upscaling the method to national level for several countries in Central Asia.


Goals:

Micrometeorological and snow measurements at various forested and open sites.

Analysis of data collected at our field sites.

Testing and improving existing parametrizations of forest snow processes.

Sensitivity tests using alternative process representations in land surface models.

Requirements: hydrology, meteorology, environmental sciences or similar

Supervisors: Tobias Jonas ([email protected]), Peter Molnar ([email protected])

For more info: see pdf.

Investigation of forest snow processes Seasonal snow is an important component of the hydrological cycle in many regions of the world. The presence of snow substantially affects energy and moisture fluxes at the land surface. Snow cover processes are therefore a critical element of land surface schemes built into ecohydrological and climate models. Forested areas are particularly challenging for model developers. Aiming at improving our abilities to predict snow water resources in forested areas, we investigate forest snow processes at several experimental sites in Davos to inform improvements of land surface models.


https://cms-author.ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/special-interest/baug/ifu/hydrology-dam/documents/master-theses/MScThesis_ForestSnow_2019.pdf


Exploring fast geomorphological response to space-time properties of heavy rainfall in a changing climate

Goals:

Characterising the space-time properties of rainfall that trigger mass sediment movement.

Exploring effect of climate change on short-term geomorphological processes.

Requirements: Matlab, GIS

Supervisors: Nadav Peleg ([email protected]),Jorge Ramirez ([email protected])

Heavy rainfall bursts can trigger fast and intense sediment erosionalong streams. The magnitude of the geomorphological responsechanges depending on the rainfall space-time properties and is notfully understood. Using a landform evolution model and a rainfallgenerator model, the fast occurring geomorphological-rainfallrelationships will be investigated over the pre-alps Gürbe catchment. Inaddition, the effect of climate change on the rainfall properties and thesediment output will be studied.

Gürbe catchment


Estimating groundwater recharge in Mediterranean environments: the role of vegetationGroundwater recharge is a critical issue for water managementin Mediterranean regions. An estimate of recharge can be computed using eco-hydrological models that simulate the hydrological budget including evapotranspiration and vadose zone dynamics allowing to compute recharge at sub-daily temporal resolution.

Tethys-Chloris model (Fatichi et al., 2012, JAMES).

Goals:

Test the Tethys-Chloris eco-hydrological model for a specific location in the Mediterranean climate of Israel.

Estimate rainfall-groundwater recharge curves from sub-daily to annual scales.

Estimate historical trends of groundwater recharge.

Requirements: Matlab, previous experience with computer models is an advantage

Supervisors: Nadav Peleg ([email protected]), Simone Fatichi ([email protected]), TheodorosMastrotheodoros ([email protected])


Goals:

analyses and pre-processing of eco-hydrological data for tropical savannas, grasslands, pastures and oil palm plantations;

Application of an eco-hydrological model to evaluate water/carbon fluxes under different climate and land cover change scenarios

Requirements: data analysis skills, Matlab

Supervisors: Simone Fatichi ([email protected]), Gabriele Manoli ([email protected])

Eco-hydrological impacts of tropical savannaconversion to oil palm plantationsOil palm plantations are one of the principal drivers oftropical land-use change and deforestation. Oil palmprovides economic benefits for countries, corporationsand smallholders, but also environmental and socialimpacts. This project aims at assessing the effects of oilpalm on changes in water/carbon fluxes in the tropics.

H2OCO2

Yield




Goals:

review parameterizations of ground evaporation (soil resistance) in state-of-the-art hydrological, ecohydrological and land surface models.

Compare different methods with laboratory experiments and field measurements of soil evaporation and identify the best method (if any).

Requirements: Matlab, data analysis skills

Supervisor: Simone Fatichi ([email protected])

Review of methodologies to calculate ground evaporation and soil resistance in hydrological models Evaporation from soil is an important component of the hydrological cycle. A correct evaluation of soil evaporation is also fundamental for not introducing compensatory effects in the calculation of transpiration and therefore wrong estimates of both fluxes.

Or et al. 2013, VZJ



Goals:

Evaluating the ecohydrological model T&C in reproducing energy and water fluxes against lysimeter and flux-tower observations.

Analyzing simulated and observed trends in evapotranspiration (ET) in response to increasing CO2 and temperature and to decadal changes in solar radiation.

Requirements: Matlab, data analysis skills

Supervisor: Simone Fatichi ([email protected])

Comparing observed and simulated ET trends at the Rietholzbach catchment

Rietholzbach is a small experimental catchmentlocated in northeastern Switzerland. Hourly observations of meteorological variables and runoff in the catchment started in 1975, and they were successively complemented with a weighing lysimeter, soil moisture probes and flux-tower observations of energy fluxes, representing a unique dataset for model testing.

Seneviratne et al. 2012, WRR

Fatichi et al. 2012, JAMES



Modeling hydropower-induced flow alterations in an Alpine catchment

Goals:

Investigate the effects of the operations of a complex Alpine hydropower system, the Maggia river system (Tessin, CH), on natural streamflow regime by simulating the catchment hydrology pre and post dam construction.

Methods: time series analysis, hydrological modeling (Topkapi-ETH), simulation of Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration (IHA).

Requirements: skills in data analysis, Matlab programming, GIS, hydrological modelling.Supervisors: Paolo Burlando ([email protected])

Maria Magdali ([email protected])

Alpine hydropower operations is threatened by increasingly uncertainand variable boundary conditions due to undergoing climate changeand increased energy production from renewables.More flexible operations of hydropower reservoirs may expose downstream riverine ecosystems to increased threats, thus exacerbating the everlasting conflict between hydropower generation and environment conservation.

Seasonality of monthly streamflow in the Maggia catchment in pre-dam conditions (natural) and in post-dam conditions (from Molnar et al., 2008)

Luzzone reservoir (photo: Claudio Bader)




Methodology and implementation of hydropower operation for power system simulation of Switzerland

Goals: Compare methodologies for modeling and simulation of hydropower generators in a

power system. Develop suggestions for computationally efficient methods that enable accurate

simulation of hydropower in Switzerland.

Requirements: experience in both power system simulation and hydrological systems operation, data analysis skills, Matlab.

Supervisors: Joint supervision between the Chair of Hydrology and Water Resources Management and the Research Center for Energy Networks.

For more info: see pdf and write to Paolo Burlando ([email protected]).

The operating behaviors of hydropower generators often follow decisions based on a longer-term outlook than all other generators in a power system. This behavior is based on limitations involving the finite amount of water inflows available and an optimization to store these inflows over the year so that electricity generation can occur during months with higher electricity prices.

https://cms-author.ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/special-interest/baug/ifu/hydrology-dam/documents/master-theses/MA_2018_FS_02_Draft_v3.pdf



Exploring hydro-meteorological uncertainties in urban drainage systems

Main goals To investigate the urban pluvial flood forecasting uncertainties

emerging from precipitation estimation To study the influence of flood warning time on urban pluvial flood

forecasting accuracyRequirements: Matlab, PythonSupervisors: João P. Leitão ([email protected]), Daniele Nerini ([email protected]), Nadav Peleg ([email protected])

Short-time precipitation forecasts, known as nowcasting, are mainlyused to issue urban pluvial flood warnings. These warnings areaffected by important sources of uncertainty, which are related toprecipitation estimation and forecasting and to uncertainties of urbanhydrodynamic modelling. This thesis aims to investigate the varioussources of uncertainty when simulating urban pluvial flooding in real-time. The thesis will be developed in collaboration with the Departmentof Urban Water Management at Eawag.

The radar-based precipitation estimates at 1400 UTC (upper panel) and a 50-member nowcast ensemble for the Sihl catchment in Zurich (lower panel).

Average rain rate over the catchment

50 membersobservation

14:0013:00 15:00 16:00

rain

rate

[mm

h-1

]




Exploring the effects of sea-land interactions and climate change on the space-time properties of rainfall

Goals:

Exploring the changes to the rainfall spatial structure as a function of the distance from the coast.

Investigating the sensitivity of extreme rainfall intensities over the maritime environment to climate change.

Requirements: Matlab

Supervisors: Peter Berg ([email protected])Nadav Peleg ([email protected])

Rainfall tends to change its structure and intensity when movingfrom far offshore toward the land. The sea-land interactions canforce local vertical convections that might lead to rapid intensificationand increase in the area of heavy rain cell features. The predictedincrease in sea and land temperature might amplify the changes tothe space-time properties of heavy rainfall features (following theClausius–Clapeyron relation), yet the relation between temperatureincrease, the rainfall structure and the relative distance from thecoast are still not fully explored.

The radar-basedprecipitationestimates forSweden region, 5-min snap shot.

Rainfall features



Summer rainstorm flash floods are a common and serious phenomenon in many mountainous regions of China. Rainfall-runoff models can be used to anticipate such events and to issue timely warnings, but false alerts or missed events are a problem. Therefore, studying and analyzing the mismatch between model output and the observations can lead to substantial improvements in model predictions, by performing bias correction and uncertainty quantification.

In this project the student will evaluate the performance of a hydrological model that has been set up for 35 catchments in China. S/he will employ instance-based learning to identify historical hydrometeorological conditions in the catchment that are similar to the forecasting time step. This will help determine the systematic biases that are expected in the forecast and additionally provide modelers with uncertainty intervals. The post-processed product is an updated model prediction that comes with a faithful quantification of uncertainty.


Goals:

Analysis of observed rainfall and flash flood events.

Analysis of model performance vs. a warning system based on rainfall monitoring only.

Improve the predictive model performance by learning from events where the model fails to adequately represent the hydrologic system response.

Requirements: data analysis skills, programming skills (Matlab or R)

Improving flash flood early warning based on error analysis of rainfall-runoff models

Time [h]0

5

10

runo

ff [m

m/h

]

simulated

observed

Supervisors: Silvan Ragettli ([email protected]), Omar Wani ([email protected]), Jörg Rieckermann (jö[email protected]), Peter Molnar ([email protected])



mailto:j%C3%[email protected]



Soil erosion in the Omo river basin (Ethiopia) - 1

Goals:

Modelling sediment transport with the TOPKAPI-ETH model for different scenarios of sediment release from dams

Explore the effect of new dams planned in the river basin on the sediment balance

Optionally, future scenarios of land use and climate will be explored.

Requirements: basic GIS skills, modelling


The Omo river basin is a large transboundary basin undergoing rapid developments such as agricultural expansion and construction of new dams. We will focus on the effect of these development on the sediment balance by means of a numerical model.


Soil erosion in the Omo river basin (Ethiopia) - 2

The Omo river basin is a large transboundary basin that is undergoing rapid developments in water resources management, including expansion of agricultural areas and the construction of new dams. We will focus on understanding the sediment dynamics of the basin by analyzing remote sensing satellite imagery.

Goals:

Estimates of surface water turbidity NTU from remote sensing satellite imagery will be analyzed for seasonality and longitudinal trend.

Estimates of fine sediment yield will be produced by combining NTU estimates with simulations of discharge.

The estimated yields will be compared with recent global estimates of annual soil loss from RUSLE for Africa.

Requirements: GIS skills, data analysis skills



Infiltrationseinschätzung um den Oberflächenabfluss zubeurteilen

Hochwasser und Überflutungen verursachen in der Schweiz immer wieder grosse Schäden. Überflutungen entstehen dabei nicht allein durch Bäche, Flüsse oder Seen, die über die Ufer treten, sondern auch durch lokalen Oberflächenabfluss. Ob eine Fläche von Oberflächenabfluss betroffen ist, hängt stark von der Infiltrationsrate ab. Verschiedene Standortfaktoren (Bodeneigen-schaften, Landnutzung, Feuchtezustand, etc.) beeinflussen die Infiltration massgeblich. Will man also eine plausible Beurteilung des Oberflächenabflusses vornehmen, ist eine gute Einschätzung der Infiltration eine wichtige Voraussetzung. Wenn man die Infiltration überschätzt, unterschätzt man den Oberflächenabfluss und umgekehrt.

Ziele:

Durchführung von Infiltrationsversuchen auf ausgewählten Standorten im Kt. BL und Auswertung der Versuche.

Berechnung der Infiltration mit theoretischen Ansätzen und Vergleich mit den Resultaten der Experimente an den Infiltrationsstandorten.

Weitere Infos: siehe pdf.

Supervisor: Peter Molnar ([email protected]) und Scherrer Hydrologie AG

https://cms-author.ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/special-interest/baug/ifu/hydrology-dam/documents/master-theses/Available_topics/Konzept_Masterarbeit_Teil_Infiltration_Sch_PK_20190909.pdf



Groundwater banking in the Sokh aquifer, UzbekistanTraditionally, groundwater and surface water resources are managed in different government institutions in Central and north-east Asia. However, with increasing stress on surface water resources for irrigation and its impact on international relations of up-stream/down-stream neighbors, joint groundwater and surface water management becomes more and more interesting for the involved stakeholders and collaboration efforts are done. Groundwater banking, i.e. the seasonal or interannual storage of surface water in an aquifer, may be suitable to increase the resilience of a watershed against water shortages. However, not every watershed is appropriate for groundwater banking. This thesis analyses the potential of the Sokh aquifer (Fergana valley, Uzbekistan) for water banking using an existing groundwater flow model.

Goals: The existing numerical groundwater flow model is evaluated with regard to its suitability to simulate ground-water

banking and joint surface water/groundwater management and is adapted if necessary. The potential of the Sokh aquifer for groundwater banking is evaluated. Groundwater banking and joint surface water/groundwater use strategies are developed (in collaboration with local

stakeholders) and tested using the groundwater flow model. The costs for the implementation and operation of a subsurface water reservoir are estimated (in collaboration with

local stakeholders) and compared to the costs of a traditional surface water reservoir. Criteria for successful groundwater banking are summarized and policy suggestions are developed.

Notes: Uzbek/Russian language skills are an advantage. Our local partner organization IWMI Central Asia in Tash-kent, Uzbekistan offers to host a master student for the duration of 2-4 weeks. A similar study has been published by Grachevaet al., 2009 and Karimov et al., 2010. Their model is no longer available. We will therefore see if we can independently confirm or negate their findings with our model.

Supervisor: Peter Molnar ([email protected]),Dr. Beatrice Marti ([email protected])

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10040-009-0444-0

http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/publications/iwmi-research-reports/iwmi-research-report-151/



Hydrological transport modelling of pesticides in surface water

Releasing pesticides into the environment has the potential to threaten the healthy functioning of ecosystems. Persistently high pesticide levels were detected in headwater streams throughout Switzerland in a 2015 national surface water sampling campaign (NAWA Spez). This led to the initiation of a National Action Plan in 2017, which is aimed to reduce the risk of pesticides over the next decade. To evaluate the effectiveness of the national action plan it is paramount to better understand the fate and transport of pesticides released to the environment.

Goals:

Develop a numerical hydrological pesticide transport model based on measurements from one of the NAWA Spez catchments.

Synthesize your hydrogeochemical knowledge and develop skills that are both valuable to industry and academia.

Requirements: Coding (e.g. Matlab, Fortran, Python, R), GIS knowledge

Notes: The work will be developed in collaboration with cantonal project leaders. Supervision and workplace will be provided by Eawag. Group work is possible. Major in Environmental Engineering, Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics.

Supervisor: Christian Stamm ([email protected]), Fabrizio Fenicia ([email protected])Reynold Chow ([email protected])



Hydrology and Water Resources Management Group...Institute of Environmental Engineering (IfU) Chair...

Documents

Transcript of Hydrology and Water Resources Management Group...Institute of Environmental Engineering (IfU) Chair...