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| | Institute of Environmental Engineering (IfU)
Chair of Hydrology and Water Resources Management
Hydrology and Water Resources Management Group
Master Theses Topics
SS 2018 http://www.hyd.ifu.ethz.ch/ 1
Maggia Valley, Switzerland
| | Institute of Environmental Engineering (IfU)
Chair of Hydrology and Water Resources Management
Research Fields:
Hydrological processes in Alpine environments
Fluvial systems and riverine processes
Ecohydrology
Hydrological extremes and natural hazards
Climate change impacts
Water resources management
Sustainable water use
Research Methods:
Numerical watershed modelling
Lab and Field measurement and monitoring
Stochastic processes
Statistical data analysis and interpretation
SS 2018 http://www.hyd.ifu.ethz.ch/ 2
Hydrology and Water Resources Management Group Prof. Paolo Burlando, hydrology and water resources management
Prof. Peter Molnar, hydrology and fluvial systems
| | Institute of Environmental Engineering (IfU)
Chair of Hydrology and Water Resources Management
It should address a scientifically and societally relevant problem in hydrology
and water resources management in Switzerland or globally.
It should formulate research hypotheses and exercise methodologically
appropriate investigations from which conclusions are drawn.
It should use advanced state-of-the-art analysis methods (models, data) and
in-depth interpretation to advance knowledge in the field.
It should provide an engineering-relevant synthesis addressing how the
results can be used in practice.
It should foster skills of independence, innovation, interpretation, and
professional presentation.
SS 2018 http://www.hyd.ifu.ethz.ch/ 3
Aims of Master Theses in HWRM
What should your MS Thesis aim to achieve?
| | Institute of Environmental Engineering (IfU)
Chair of Hydrology and Water Resources Management
1. Each slide here presents one MS Thesis topic. Select a topic and meet the
indicated supervisor for a more detailed description. Do this early in the
selection process. Variations in the proposed topics are permitted and your
own input invited and encouraged.
2. Prepare a 2 page MS Thesis research plan which broadly outlines: (a) the
definition of the problem; (b) the methods which will be used to address it;
(c) the expected results. Discuss/improve this document with the supervisor.
3. Once you have the agreement of the supervisor sign up in ETH MyStudies
for the Thesis with a supervising professor and upload your research plan.
4. Start date: Spring Semester beginning (with flexibility 1 week)
Duration: 6 months (excl. holidays), i.e. to beginning of September
Presentation: in the last 2 weeks (end of Aug to beginning of Sept)
Poster and Report: due at the end of the assigned Thesis window
For further information contact the Teaching Assistant.
SS 2018 http://www.hyd.ifu.ethz.ch/ 4
Process of Selecting a MS Thesis
| | Institute of Environmental Engineering (IfU)
Chair of Hydrology and Water Resources Management SS 2018 http://www.hyd.ifu.ethz.ch/ 5
Goals (several Theses possible):
Quantification of physical habitat alterations by
numerical simulation (BASEMENT 2d)
Analysis of morphological change, gravel bar
mobility and sediment transport
Investigation of conditions for riparian
vegetation establishment by modelling
Requirements: BASEMENT 2d, GIS, data analysis
Hydro-morphological assessment of Alpine rivers
(Maggia, Ticino) and their ecosystem services
Since the 1950s, the natural streamflow regime of the Maggia and
Ticino rivers has been strongly affected by streamflow regulation
due to hydropower operation. This research will aim at quantifying
the impacts of regulation on river ecosystem services, changes in
aquatic habitat, sediment transport, riparian vegetation, etc.
Supervisors: Peter Molnar ([email protected]),
Annunziato Siviglia ([email protected])
Temporal evolution of alternate bars (Patrissi, 2018)
| | Institute of Environmental Engineering (IfU)
Chair of Hydrology and Water Resources Management SS 2018 http://www.hyd.ifu.ethz.ch/ 6
Goals:
Date and map gravel bar age from oldest riparian
plans (salix) in the Maggia River.
Analyze change in vegetation cover from aerial
photography over the last 70 years.
Determine the return periods of channel forming
floods from daily streamflow records.
Requirements: basic GIS skills, data analysis skills
Supervisor: Peter Molnar ([email protected])
Hydromorphological river bed stability from
dendrochronology
Riparian vegetation is commonly established on gravel bars in braided
Alpine. The maximum age of the vegetation is an indicator of stability
and can be used to map minimum gravel bar age. This is important
information to better understand the return periods of channel forming
floods.
| | Institute of Environmental Engineering (IfU)
Chair of Hydrology and Water Resources Management SS 2018 http://www.hyd.ifu.ethz.ch/ 7
Goals:
Calibrate and validate Topkapi-ETH on the Thur
catchment.
Quantify shifts in the pdf of streamflow from
station data and simulations along the river.
Conduct uncertainty analysis to quantify
the sensitivity to climate (precip., temp.).
Requirements: basic GIS skills, modelling,
data analysis skills
Supervisor: Peter Molnar ([email protected])
Attribution of changes in streamflow by hydrological
simulation (Thur R.)
Shifts in the probability distributions of daily (hourly) streamflow are often visible in
hydrological data and attributed to environmental changes (climate, landuse, etc.).
Watershed modelling provides us a tool by which we can quantify the uncertainty in such
assessments by simulation (example Thur R.).
| | Institute of Environmental Engineering (IfU)
Chair of Hydrology and Water Resources Management SS 2018 http://www.hyd.ifu.ethz.ch/ 8
Goals:
Analyze the WSL landslide inventory database and
select rainfall triggered events with timing.
Develop hourly rainfall products using a
combination of gauge-radar-grid data.
Fit rainfall ID threshold curves and conduct a
regionalization of the thresholds.
Requirements: basic GIS skills, data analysis skills
Supervisor: Peter Molnar ([email protected])
Rainfall triggering of shallow landslides in Switzerland
Shallow landslides in Alpine catchments are often generated
by rainfall which saturates the soil and leads to slope failure.
The triggering conditions may be described by rainfall
intensity-duration (ID) curves. In this research we will
estimate the rainfall ID curves for a landslide inventory of
WSL.
| | Institute of Environmental Engineering (IfU)
Chair of Hydrology and Water Resources Management SS 2018 http://www.hyd.ifu.ethz.ch/ 9
Goals:
Analyze statistics of African lake level fluctuations
from hydroweb (Theia).
Collect hydrological remote sensing data for the
lake watersheds.
Build a water balance model and quantify the
contributions of timescales of variability.
Requirements: basic GIS skills, data analysis skills
Supervisor: Peter Molnar ([email protected])
Water balances of large African lakes and their temporal
variability
The Rift Valley Lakes in Africa are unique ecosystems,
containing one of the highest biodiversity worldwide. The levels
in these lakes fluctuate significantly, in response to longer term
climatic cycles as well as dry-wet seasons. It is important to
know the contribution of all factors to this variability.
| | Institute of Environmental Engineering (IfU)
Chair of Hydrology and Water Resources Management SS 2018 http://www.hyd.ifu.ethz.ch/ 10
Identify contributions to discharge by end-member mixing analysis
We will use hydrogeochemical programs (e.g. PHREECQC) to
evaluate the contribution from different groundwater sources
(variable geology / lithology) to surface discharge. End-member
mixing analysis will allow quantify the contribution of each
source, as well as to perform hydrograph separation by water
chemistry.
Goals:
calculate saturation for different mineral species in water
samples from a database for Alpine catchments
perform water mixing calculations to separate contributions
from different sources and reduce uncertainty in end-
member concentration
( - sampling campaign in an high Alpine catchment)
Requirements: interest in: geochemistry, transport processes,
hydrological processes
Supervisors: Marius Floriancic ([email protected])
Joaquin Jimenez-Martinez ([email protected])
Peter Molnar ([email protected])
| | Institute of Environmental Engineering (IfU)
Chair of Hydrology and Water Resources Management SS 2018 http://www.hyd.ifu.ethz.ch/ 11
Quantitative evaluation of relations in low flow statistics and geodata
Prediction of low flows is critical as the controlling
mechanisms and landscape settings of catchments are not
well understood. Using a Swiss scale dataset of discharge
timeseries and various available geodata we will evaluate
the connection of statistical parameters characterizing low
flows and the differences / similarities in relevant physical
catchment properties.
Goals:
calculate statistic variables characterizing low flows
evaluate quantities of various geodata features for
multiple catchments in CH
apply statistical tools to relate low flow statistics and physical catchment settings
Requirements: data analysis skills with Matlab R or Python, understanding of
hydrological processes, ArcGIS
Supervisors: Marius Floriancic ([email protected])
Peter Molnar ([email protected])
| | Institute of Environmental Engineering (IfU)
Chair of Hydrology and Water Resources Management SS 2018 http://www.hyd.ifu.ethz.ch/ 12
Water balance modelling for low flow / recession prediction
We will evaluate the influence of precipitation and
evapotranspiration on low flow magnitude and timing by
using simple water balance models. Large scale datasets all
over CH will be used to learn about the relevant variables, in
a second step we will formulate and test different extreme
scenarios for various Swiss regions.
Requirements: data analysis skills with Matlab R or
Python, understanding of hydrological processes
Supervisors: Marius Floriancic ([email protected])
Peter Molnar ([email protected])
Goals:
evaluating the influence of precipitation on low flows
calculate evaporation rates and adopt water balances
formulate extreme scenarios and evaluate their impact for
various Swiss regions
| | Institute of Environmental Engineering (IfU)
Chair of Hydrology and Water Resources Management SS 2018 http://www.hyd.ifu.ethz.ch/ 13
Goals: Different main Topics can be analysed.
The assignment of tasks will be done individually.
Possible topics are:
Analysis of soil temperature behaviour in different
depth, dependent on agricultural crop, soil tilling etc.
Soil water balance. Analyse Tensiometer- and FDR Data.
Dew formation and its relevance in the water balance.
Correlation of evapotranspiration and dendrometer
measurements.
Requirements: Some basic MATLAB knowledge is helpful.
Supervisors: Peter Molnar ([email protected]),
Luzia von Känel ([email protected]), Volker Prasuhn (ART Reckenholz)
Analysis of lysimeter data (ART Reckenholz) with
different soils and agricultural crops
The Lysimeter station at Agroscope Reckenholz offers,
with its 72 Lysimeter whereas 12 are weighable, a huge
database for different questions in the field of hydrology
and environmental science.
| | Institute of Environmental Engineering (IfU)
Chair of Hydrology and Water Resources Management SS 2018 http://www.hyd.ifu.ethz.ch/ 14
Goals:
Use data mining and machine learning techniques to
relate dominant processes and initial conditions to
optimal hydrological model parameters.
Evaluate model performance for assumed ungauged
mountain catchments in China
Requirements: data analysis and programing skills
Supervisors: Silvan Ragettli ([email protected]),
Peter Molnar ([email protected])
Modelling flash floods in ungauged mountain basins of
China: parameter identification based on data mining
Summer flash floods are a common and serious threat in many
mountainous regions of China. Hydrosolutions Ltd. has set up a
rainfall-runoff model to simulate these events in 35 basins. In this
project the student is exploring the possibility to use data mining
techniques and a dataset containing more than 600 calibrated
parameter sets to identify hydrological model parameters.
| | Institute of Environmental Engineering (IfU)
Chair of Hydrology and Water Resources Management SS 2018 http://www.hyd.ifu.ethz.ch/ 15
Goals:
Generate a validation data set for land cover
classification (irrigated/non-irrigated).
Systematically map irrigation activities and changes
over time on the national scale.
Requirements: data analysis and programing skills
Supervisors: Silvan Ragettli ([email protected]),
Peter Molnar ([email protected])
Remotely-Sensed Mapping of Irrigation Area in Central
Asia with Google Earth Engine
Google Earth Engine (GEE) is a powerful tool to swiftly process
petabytes of high resolution remote sensing data. Hydrosolutions
Ltd. has implemented a method in GEE to automatically map
irrigation area based on Landsat 7 and MODIS satellite data and
to track changes over time. Our results for the Chu-Talas basins in
Kazakhstan/Kyrgyzstan reflect the gradual rehabilitation of the
existing irrigation systems that were partly abandoned after the
demise of the Soviet Union. In this project the student is upscaling
the method to national level for several countries in Central Asia.
| | Institute of Environmental Engineering (IfU)
Chair of Hydrology and Water Resources Management SS 2018 http://www.hyd.ifu.ethz.ch/ 16
Exploring hydro-meteorological uncertainties in flash
flood forecasting
Goals:
Generating an ensemble of precipitation nowcasts (short-time
forecast) to represent measurement and forecast uncertainties.
Studying the propagation of these uncertainties in the hydrological
flood response.
Requirements: Matlab, Python
Supervisors: Daniele Nerini ([email protected]),
Nadav Peleg ([email protected])
Meteorological offices, such as MeteoSwiss, produce very short-time
precipitation forecasts known as nowcasting. Nowcasting is mainly
used to issue warnings for extreme events such as flash floods.
However, these warnings are also affected by important sources of
uncertainty that are related to the estimation and the forecasting of
precipitation, as well as to uncertainties in the hydrological model.
The radar-based precipitation estimates at
1400 UTC (upper panel) and a 50-member
nowcast ensemble for the Sihl catchment in
Zurich (lower panel).
Average rain rate over the catchment
50 members
observation
14:00 13:00 15:00 16:00
rain
rate
[m
m h
-1]
| | Institute of Environmental Engineering (IfU)
Chair of Hydrology and Water Resources Management SS 2018 http://www.hyd.ifu.ethz.ch/ 17
Estimating groundwater recharge in Mediterranean
environments: the role of vegetation
Groundwater recharge is a critical issue for water management
in Mediterranean regions. An estimate of recharge can be
computed using eco-hydrological models that simulate the
hydrological budget including evapotranspiration and vadose
zone dynamics allowing to compute recharge at sub-daily
temporal resolution.
Tethys-Chloris model
(Fatichi et al., 2012, JAMES).
Goals:
Test the Tethys-Chloris eco-hydrological model for a specific
location in the Mediterranean climate of Israel.
Estimate rainfall-groundwater recharge curves from sub-daily
to annual scales.
Estimate historical trends of groundwater recharge.
Requirements: Matlab, previous experience with computer
models is an advantage
Supervisors: Nadav Peleg ([email protected]),
Simone Fatichi ([email protected]), Theodoros
Mastrotheodoros ([email protected])
| | Institute of Environmental Engineering (IfU)
Chair of Hydrology and Water Resources Management SS 2018 http://www.hyd.ifu.ethz.ch/ 18
Goals:
analyses and pre-processing of eco-hydrological data
for tropical savannas, grasslands, pastures and oil
palm plantations;
Application of an eco-hydrological model to evaluate
water/carbon fluxes under different climate and land
cover change scenarios
Requirements: data analysis skills, Matlab
Supervisors: Simone Fatichi ([email protected]),
Gabriele Manoli ([email protected])
Eco-hydrological impacts of tropical savanna
conversion to oil palm plantations
Oil palm plantations are one of the principal drivers of
tropical land-use change and deforestation. Oil palm
provides economic benefits for countries, corporations
and smallholders, but also environmental and social
impacts. This project aims at assessing the effects of oil
palm on changes in water/carbon fluxes in the tropics.
H2O CO2
Yield
| | Institute of Environmental Engineering (IfU)
Chair of Hydrology and Water Resources Management SS 2018 http://www.hyd.ifu.ethz.ch/ 19
Goals:
review parameterizations of ground evaporation (soil
resistance) in state-of-the-art hydrological,
ecohydrological and land surface models.
Compare different methods with laboratory
experiments and field measurements of soil
evaporation and identify the best method (if any).
Requirements: Matlab, data analysis skills
Supervisor: Simone Fatichi ([email protected])
Review of methodologies to calculate ground
evaporation and soil resistance in hydrological models
Evaporation from soil is an important component of the
hydrological cycle. A correct evaluation of soil evaporation
is also fundamental for not introducing compensatory
effects in the calculation of transpiration and therefore
wrong estimates of both fluxes.
Or et al. 2013, VZJ
| | Institute of Environmental Engineering (IfU)
Chair of Hydrology and Water Resources Management SS 2018 http://www.hyd.ifu.ethz.ch/ 20
Goals:
Evaluating the ecohydrological model T&C in
reproducing energy and water fluxes against
lysimeter and flux-tower observations.
Analyzing simulated and observed trends in
evapotranspiration (ET) in response to increasing
CO2 and temperature and to decadal changes in
solar radiation.
Requirements: Matlab, data analysis skills
Supervisor: Simone Fatichi ([email protected])
Comparing observed and simulated ET trends at the
Rietholzbach catchment
Rietholzbach is a small experimental catchment
located in northeastern Switzerland. Hourly observations
of meteorological variables and runoff in the catchment
started in 1975, and they were successively
complemented with a weighing lysimeter, soil moisture
probes and flux-tower observations of energy fluxes,
representing a unique dataset for model testing.
Seneviratne et al. 2012, WRR
Fatichi et al. 2012, JAMES
| | Institute of Environmental Engineering (IfU)
Chair of Hydrology and Water Resources Management SS 2018 http://www.hyd.ifu.ethz.ch/ 21
Modeling the effect of vegetation on urban micro-
climate
Goals:
Set up and run CFD simulations for a specific urban
case study
Investigate the impact of different vegetation
characteristics and/or patterns on local micro-climate
Requirements: numerical modelling and coding skills (e.g.
OpenFOAM)
Supervisors: Gabriele Manoli ([email protected]),
Simone Fatichi ([email protected])
Vegetation can provide a beneficial cooling effect in cities
and green infrastructures are promoted worldwide to
improve local thermal comfort and mitigate the Urban Heat
Island (UHI) effect. However, to understand the impact of
vegetation on urban microclimate, a detailed modeling of
vegetation properties and mass and energy fluxes at the
neighborhood scale is required. Allegrini et al. (2016)
www.stefanoboeriarchitetti.net
| | Institute of Environmental Engineering (IfU)
Chair of Hydrology and Water Resources Management SS 2018 http://www.hyd.ifu.ethz.ch/ 22
Understanding the impacts of cities on local
precipitation
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/
Ashley et al. (2012)
Goals:
Collect and process data from weather radar and remote
sensing for a number of selected cities
Investigate how the urban environment modifies the
dependence between rainfall intensity and temperature
and identify spatial differences across cities
Requirements: data analysis skills, Matlab
Supervisors: Gabriele Manoli ([email protected]),
Nadav Peleg ([email protected]),
Simone Fatichi ([email protected])
Despite the rapid urbanization of our planet, our
understanding of anthropogenic effects in the urban micro-
climate are still limited. In particular, it is difficult to quantify
how city size, properties and functioning modifies the
spatio-temporal patterns of temperature, rainfall, and
surface energy fluxes
| | Institute of Environmental Engineering (IfU)
Chair of Hydrology and Water Resources Management SS 2018 http://www.hyd.ifu.ethz.ch/ 23
Modeling hydropower-induced flow alterations in an
Alpine catchment
Goals:
Investigate the effects of the operations of a complex Alpine
hydropower system, the Maggia river system (Tessin, CH), on
natural streamflow regime by simulating the catchment hydrology
pre and post dam construction.
Methods: time series analysis, hydrological modeling (Topkapi-ETH),
simulation of Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration (IHA) .
Requirements: skills in data analysis, Matlab programming, GIS,
hydrological modelling.
Supervisors: Daniela Anghileri ([email protected]).
Alpine hydropower operations is threatened by increasingly uncertain and
variable boundary conditions due to undergoing climate change and
increased energy production from renewables.
More flexible operations of hydropower reservoirs may expose
downstream riverine ecosystems to increased threats, thus exacerbating
the everlasting conflict between hydropower generation and environment
conservation.
Seasonality of monthly streamflow in the
Maggia catchment in pre-dam conditions
(natural) and in post-dam conditions
(from Molnar et al., 2008)
Luzzone reservoir
(photo: Claudio Bader)
| | Institute of Environmental Engineering (IfU)
Chair of Hydrology and Water Resources Management SS 2018 http://www.hyd.ifu.ethz.ch/ 24
Improving hydropower operations by using different
streamflow forecasts products
Goals:
Analyze 4 different streamflow forecasts products and quantify
their accuracy in reproducing actual streamflow conditions
Use them to improve the operation on a Swiss hydropower
system located in the Southern Alps (the Verzasca reservoir,
Tessin).
Methods: time series analysis, water resources management via
optimization.
Requirements: skills in data analysis, Matlab programming, basic
knowledge in optimization techniques for water management.
Supervisors: Daniela Anghileri ([email protected]).
Hydropower reservoir operation can be improved by considering
streamflow forecasts when deciding how to operate the system, i.e.,
reservoir and power plant.
The quality of the forecasts, i.e., the accuracy in predicting the real
streamflow, significantly affects the decisions that can be taken thus
determining the success or failure of the hydropower reservoir
management.
Example of reservoir inflow forecast
ensemble
Verzasca reservoir (Tessin, CH)
| | Institute of Environmental Engineering (IfU)
Chair of Hydrology and Water Resources Management SS 2018 http://www.hyd.ifu.ethz.ch/ 25
Methodology and implementation of hydropower
operation for power system simulation of Switzerland
Goals:
Compare methodologies for modeling and simulation of hydropower generators in a power system
Develop suggestions for computationally efficient methods that enable accurate simulation of
hydropower in Switzerland.
Requirements: experience in both power system simulation and hydrological systems operation, data
analysis skills, Matlab.
Supervisors: Joint supervision between the Chair of Hydrology and Water Resources Management and
the Research Center for Energy Networks.
For more info: see pdf and write to Daniela Anghileri ([email protected]).
The operating behaviors of hydropower generators often follow decisions based on a longer-term
outlook than all other generators in a power system. This behavior is based on limitations involving the
finite amount of water inflows available and an optimization to store these inflows over the year so that
electricity generation can occur during months with higher electricity prices.