ECTS
7 credits
Component
Faculty of Science
List of courses
Your choice: 1 of 2
EU CHOICE 2-1
7 creditsEU CHOICE 2-2
7 creditsThermal waters
2 creditsIn situ characterization of large aquifer systems
5 credits
Hydrological modelling of cultivated basins
Level of study
BAC +5
ECTS
3 credits
Component
Faculty of Science
The EU aims to accompany students to the practice and the high level of hindsight on the hydrological modeling of watersheds dominated by agricultural activities and subject to climate change. The UE is articulated around 4 points of view:
1. Watershed hydrology and its place in the history of science,
2. Specificities of agricultural landscapes and implications for modeling ,
3. The problem of changing scales,
4. Practice and critique of hydrological modeling.
The course will provide advanced knowledge on production functions, transfer functions, global and distributed modeling. It will lead the students to the autonomous practice of different hydrological models (Green and Ampt, reservoir, Curve Number, unit hydrograph, cascade of reservoirs, etc.) and to step back on the parameterization, calibration and validation of hydrological models.
UE ER field course: hydrometry, hydrology, hydrochemistry
Level of study
BAC +5
Component
Faculty of Science
The status of a river according to the WFD includes two aspects: a chemical status and an ecological status. To define the ecological status, several parameters will have to be taken into account, including parameters related to the volume of water (via flow measurement) of the watercourse. In this course, students will be asked to carry out field or laboratory measurements to determine some of the key parameters in the determination of the state of a river or more generally used in hydrological studies (floods, evaluation of the resource...).
4 components will be addressed:
- Hydrometry, with the use of different gauging techniques (point by point method with electromagnetic current meter, ADCP, dilution method, float gauging, radar).
- Soil hydrodynamics, with the use of several infiltrometry methods to determine the saturation conductivity, the sampling of soil cylinders for determination after drying of the porosity, dry density, and water content of the soil.
- the Hydrochemistry component, with :
- a part on the field (sampling and analysis with a multiparameter and a field spectrophotometer) for physico-chemical parameters (temperature, electrical conductivity, pH, dissolved oxygen, TAC, PO4 and NO3, ...)
- a part in laboratory (analysis and quantification of the presence of 4-tert-octlyphenol in a surface water sample, by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS)) to determine the presence of emerging contaminants of the alkylphenol ethoxylate (APEO) family, compounds present in products such as detergents, emulsifiers and solubilizers.
- the Hydrobiology component, with the presence or absence of certain species taken into account: fish, invertebrates, macrophytes (aquatic plants) and diatoms (unicellular algae), in order to determine specific indices (RPI, NBI, RMI, DBI) relating to the biological quality of the watercourse.
Thermal waters
Level of study
BAC +5
ECTS
2 credits
Component
Faculty of Science
This course focuses on natural mineral waters and thermal waters whose specificities and characteristics make them particular resources in terms of exploitation, management and protection of their deposits. The students will be trained to the technical and regulatory/health aspects specific to the exploitation of these resources, in particular thanks to the interventions of professionals of the sector and to the visit of an exploitation site. They will also be made aware of the management and protection of this type of aquifer in order to be able to propose study protocols to be implemented in situ to characterize and protect these resources and thus acquire hydrogeological expertise for this type of aquifer.
In situ characterization of large aquifer systems
Level of study
BAC +5
ECTS
5 credits
Component
Faculty of Science
This course is designed to provide students with the necessary skills to collect hydrometric data (in the broadest sense) in the field and to apply them to different types of case studies in order to conduct an engineering/research project in hydrogeology.
This EU is divided into two parts:
- A first week entirely realized on the field in the department of Pyrenees Orientales;
- A second week in the classroom, in order to analyze and interpret the data acquired in the field.
During thefirst week, the first 3 days are devoted to the acquisition of various technical skills in hydrometry (in the broad sense) in situ, so that the students are then "project managers" during the last 2 days during which they will work on a case study to be solved by project groups. They will then be divided on 2 experimental sites on which the projects to be carried out will be declined. The subjects will be presented in more detail at the beginning of the course so that the previously defined groups can propose an experimental protocol to be carried out in situ, enabling them to solve their problem. The supervisory team will validate the envisaged protocols the day before the experiments start.
During thesecond week, the students will analyze their data acquired on their field-project, and will share the different analyses and interpretations of these data in order to propose a presentation and a report integrating and synthesizing all these results, which will be used to evaluate their work.