UE ER field course: hydrometry, hydrology, hydrochemistry

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.

The general objective of this course is to make the students autonomous in the realization of measurements in the field or in the laboratory (use of the apparatuses, precautions to be taken, fields of validity, calibrations, precisions, calculations of uncertainties, etc.) and in the data processing which follows. They will thus be able to reinvest this know-how during the Project courses that will follow in M2, then during their internship and professional life.

EU "water cycle

Continuous control 100

- a CR of the laboratory test

- a spreadsheet evaluation for processing flow and soil hydrodynamic data

- a CR for hydrochemistry and hydrobiology analyses in the field