This course involves the application of process-based hydrological and river models for simulating catchment processes, river flow and water quality using Mike-SHE, Mile-11 and Mike-ECO Lab modelling software.

Learning objectives

Be able to describe the structure of physically-based hydrological models and methods to simulate hydrological phenomena.
Be able to distinguish components of hydrological modelling software for catchment process, river flow and water quality simulations.
Be able to translate a given hydrological problem into a model definition.
Be able to carry out a hydrological modelling study, interpret results and assess model performance.

Course content

This course comprises the setting up and application of process-based hydrological and river models for simulating catchment processes, river flow and water quality using Mike-SHE, Mile-11 and Mike-ECO Lab modelling software. Commonly used model types and methods of hydrological processes are introduced in the form of group discussion and presentations. Also discussed are setting up and defining model structure, schematization and boundary conditions for the catchment. Hands-on exercises are used to analyse and interpret simulation results. In addition, simple spreadsheet-based exercises are used to become familiar with the computational techniques. Various criteria for model performance evaluation and model calibration issues are introduced and applied in workshops. Participants are required to write short reports to summarise simulation results and model performance evaluation.

Topics include:

Introduction to hydrological, catchment and river modeling. Physically-based and conceptual models; distributed, semi-distributed and lumped models. Components of hydrological models and commonly used methods and software. Defining model structure, schematization and boundary conditions. Setting up of Mike-SHE model for catchment process simulation, Mike-11 model for river flow simulation and Mike-ECO Lab for water quality simulation. Criteria for model performance evaluation.