Programme target group

Programme prerequisites

After successful completion of this module participants will be able to evaluate the fates and risks of important environmental pollutants in the aquatic environment; apply a number of water quality models as a tool in water management; construct sustainable water quality monitoring programmes.

Water quality and monitoring: Water quality parameters. Natural water quality and pollution parameters. The monitoring cycle. Items of the monitoring programme: why, what, where, how, how often. Fieldwork and sampling. Physicochemical and biological water quality assessment. Groundwater monitoring: principles and case studies. Data reporting and presentation.

Case study: design of a water quality monitoring programme in a river basin.

Data analysis and presentation: the use of statistics in water quality monitoring. Statistical tests: t-test; confidence intervals, Q-test; regression analysis; ANOVA; correlation and regression. Computer exercises using EXCEL.

Aquatic ecotoxicology: Ecoxicological tests. Environmental characteristics of pollutants. Sources, transport and fate of micropollutants. Modelling and monitoring. Risk assessment and evaluation.

Water quality modelling: river hydraulics and modelling; finite-difference approximations. Types and construction of water quality models. BOD-DO modelling in a river system. Computer-based exercises, e.g. using the SOBEK model and STELLA software.

A 1-day fieldtrip will be made to a water quality monitoring institute; ½ day fieldwork and ½ day laboratory work will be carried out on water quality monitoring and Quality Control.

Lectures serve to introduce course material; computer exercises serve to make participants practically apply water quality models and process water quality monitoring data. Participants will, in small groups, construct and present a proposal for a case study on a sustainable water quality monitoring programme for a river basin.  

Lecture notes, water quality modelling software and laboratory and field kit instructions.

• P. Kelderman, PhD, MSc
• Prof. H.A.M. de Kruijf, PhD
• G.F. Kruis