WATR404-18S1 (C) Semester One 2018

Special Topic

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 19 February 2018
End Date: Sunday, 24 June 2018
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Friday, 2 March 2018
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Friday, 18 May 2018

Description

Special Topic in Water Resource Management, in which a specific course of study will be developed to suit student needs. Permission to enrol is required from the WRM Programme Director, to be granted pending an appropriate course of study developed by a nominated supervisor, in consultation with the student.

In 2018, the special topic will be titled "Integrated data to support water modelling", delivered by Erskine Fellow Professor David Maidment.

New Zealand is concerned about polluted natural waters resulting from intensive agriculture, and how this trend can be reversed. The United States, more polluted than New Zealand, has established procedures for enhancing water quality in natural waters, but these are limited by data distributed sparsely over a vast landscape. New Zealand, a relatively data-rich country, can leverage this information to address its water quality challenges. Example applications using data from the Horizons Regional Council and from Environment Canterbury will illustrate possible approaches.

The ArcGIS geographic information system will be used as the basic analytical tool, and no prior experience in GIS is assumed.

This course is highly recommended for postgraduate students in Water Resource Management (with appropriate skills, see below) and GIS. It is also available to student of other postgraduate degrees. The course will suit students with skills in one or more of the following; natural resources engineering, GIS, hydrology, physical geography, modelling, water resource characterization and management, and environmental chemistry. The course will be largely technical in nature, with a moderate level of numeracy required.

Prerequisites

Subject to approval of Director, WCFM

Timetable Note

Term 1 (19 Feb -29 March); 3hrs/week. Wednesday afternoon 1-4pm

Mid-semester break (11th and 12th April). A 2-day workshop involving both the students of WATR404 and external agencies interested in the application and use of GIS-based regional water quality assessment. This will expose students first hand to the methods and data needed for such assessment, and its anticipated application within NZ to enable better management of our water resources.

Contact Person

Julie Clarke

Guest Lecturer

Professor David Maidment (Erskine Visitor)

Professor David Maidment was born and raised in the Wairarapa and obtained his Bachelors Degree in Engineering from the University of Canterbury in 1972. He received his graduate education in the United States and has served on the civil engineering faculty of the University of Texas at Austin since 1981. He has experience in regional water quality assessment in Texas and is returning to University of Canterbury on an Erskine Fellowship, to try to help address the water quality challenges NZ faces. He is the first New Zealand born and educated civil engineer to have been elected to the US National Academy of Engineering.

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage 
Internal assessment 100%


The course will be 100% internally assessed (i.e., no exam). Assessment requirements are still to be finalized, but will require a similar level of effort and quality to those for other WATR postgraduate courses.

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $1,013.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see School of Earth and Environment .

All WATR404 Occurrences

  • WATR404-18S1 (C) Semester One 2018