Vadose Zone Hydrology
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GOAL: Vadose zone (Unsaturated zone) is the soil zone directly interacting with human activities. It directly receives and transports contamination on the surface. The vadose zone also supports all vegetation life on the ground. Particularly, civil engineers should understand vadose zone because soil moisture controls slope stability and support force provided by the soil. You will learn the following from this course: 1) Theoretical background on water movement and contaminant transport in the vadose zone, 2) How to measure the parameters of the water retention curve in the lab, and 3) How to use HYDRUS to simulate water movement and contaminant transport in 1D and 2D cases.
COURSE LEVEL AND REQUIREMENTS: This is a graduate-level course. There is no prerequisite. Students should be able to access the university portal (iSchool). All grades and announcements will be available there. Students are responsible for keeping up to date with all announcements.
EVALUATION: 5% Submission of project topic and summary by the end of the 6th week 10% Literature Review Presentation 24% Lab reports 20% Final exam 20% Final oral presentation (5% choice of problem, 10% contents, 5% presentation skills) 10% Final written report (6% content, 4% conforming to journal format) 11% Attendance Project: Projects are done individually or by teams depending on the class size. Each individual/team is free with topic choices. Projects in fields like agriculture, civil engineering, or forest are all welcome. However, the topic should contribute to or fill a gap in our understanding of the selected field. The allotted time for each oral presentation is 15 minutes. Peer-grading on oral presentations will be utilized. The written report should utilize formal journal formats. You need to declare clearly the journal format that you are mimicking. There is no limit on the number of words or pages, but you are responsible for delivering everything clearly with sufficient details. The deadline for written reports is 11:59 PM on the last day of the university final exam week. Literature Review: Each week, a student/a team will provide a presentation on a peer-reviewed paper about vadose zone research. Lab: Each individual/team (depending on the class size mentioned above) must obtain a soil sample and test it using HYPROP. The parameters measured by HYPROP will be used in the labs. Appointments must be made to use HYPROP. All measurements must be done by the end of the sixth week.
TENTATIVE SCHEDULE: Week 1: Icebreaker, explanation of the syllabus Week 2: Intro. to unsaturated hydrology, Lab 1 (HYPROP operations) Weeks 3-4: Soil basics Weeks 5-6: Water movement in saturated soil Weeks 7-8: Water movement in unsaturated soil Week 9: Lab 2 (1D HYDRUS water flow and inverse problem) Week 10: Lab 3 (Non-equilibrium water flow) Week 11: Lab 4 (2D infiltration cases) Week 12: Contaminant transport in unsaturated soil Week 13: Lab 5 (1D solute transport) Week 14: Lab 6 (2D flow and transport in a riparian zone) Week 15: Final exam Week 16: Final oral presentations