Tutorials of Sustainable Design of Water Resources Systems - 2022

Sustainable Design of Water Resources Systems is concentrating on the management of water resources in the presence of increasing anthropogenic pressure and climate change. The course will be taught during 48 hours of frontal teaching, including lectures given by the teacher and exercises developed by collaborative work by students and the teacher. The purpose of the course is to provide an overview of modern techniques for estimating design variables for water resources systems in the presence of human impact. Systems considered during the course will be natural and artificial river networks and water supply systems. Design variables that will be considered here are those quantifying water resources availability in natural and human impacted river networks, peak flow, and design hydrograph. The course will focus on rainfall-runoff modeling as a tool to assess river flow regime and human impact in ungauged basins; the impact of climate change will be discussed as well as techniques for increasing the resilience of water resources systems.

On-line lectures

Lectures will be delivered in physical presence (according to limitations imposed by Covid-19) and contemporary streaming video. Videos of the lectures will be recorded and made available open access on YouTube (see below).

Interactive learning

The course promotes teaching methods based on the active participation by students by using innovative technologies and social media. A fundamental role is played by the interaction between students and teachers. The project aims to integrate the traditional one-way flow of knowledge from teacher to student with a feedback flow from student to teacher and a cross flow among students. The target is achieved by assigning an active role to the student during his/her education. Innovative teaching methods may include:

  • Videos of the lectures available online;
  • Short presentations by students;
  • Groups Question&Answers sessions "Challenge the teacher";
  • Self evaluation by students;
  • Interim check of students' opinion on the course.

The teacher will give to the students the option to evaluate their interacting activities as part of their final exam. This is an opportunity to make the evaluation of the student a continuous and interactive process along the semester.

Tutorial documents

The tutorials for the course will be delivered in the form of open web pages, open media and freely accessible videos of all the lectures, for the sake of developing academic education through fully open information. Tutorial web pages for the lectures (the list may be updated during the course depending on the ambition and preferences of students):

Tutorial web pages for the practical exercises (the list may be updated during the course depending on the ambition and preferences of students):

Additional information may be available on the official Moodle platform of the University of Bologna at this page, that is accessible with student's credentials. Please contact the teacher if you do not have access to this page. The virtual classroom is accessible by clicking here.

Videos of the lectures

The videos of the lectures are available at the link below: Playlist of Sustainable Design of Water Resources Systems 2022 Videos will be made available within one week after the lecture.

Calendar of the lectures

All the lectures will be delivered by Alberto and will take place in room 1.5 on Thursday and room 1.4 on Monday. The calendar of the lectures is given here below. Please note that changes may occur. Any change will be communicated by the teacher to the students one week earlier at the latest.

  • Feb 21, 3 hours
  • Feb 24, 2 hours
  • Feb 28, 3 hours
  • March 3, 2 hours
  • March 7, 3 hours
  • March 10, 2 hours
  • March 14, 3 hours
  • March 24, 2 hours
  • March 28, 3 hours
  • March 31, 2 hours
  • April 4, 3 hours
  • April 7, 2 hours
  • April 11, 3 hours
  • April 21, 2 hours
  • April 28, 2 hours
  • May 2, 3 hours
  • May 5, 2 hours
  • May 9, 3 hours
  • May 12, 2 hours
  • May 19, Field trip at Boretto (Reggio Emilia)
Exam

Learning outcome will be assessed through a online quiz plus a short oral examination. The quiz will count 30 questions with close answer and no penalty for wrong answers, with a duration of 30 minutes. The oral will be very short. The exam will be in physical presence or online for the students exempted from physical attendance. The student will be given the option to include interactive activities as part of the exam; in this case the oral examination may be shorter or absent. The oral aims to assess the ability of the student to deliver a clear and well articulated presentation (this question could be addressed with an interactive activity). Questions are related to the topics that are taught during the lectures and are explained in the supporting documents. The teacher may ask questions not directly related to what has been discussed during the lecture in order to assess outstanding capabilities of the student to integrate the notions delivered by the teacher. The highest score (30/30) is reserved to students who demonstrate a full knowledge of the notions, a very good ability to address questions through an efficient synthesis, and a very good presentation. The laude is reserved to students who demonstrate exceptional motivation and integrate the course content with additional notions by following their personal interest and attitude. Exam dates will be fixed in agreement with the students at the beginning of the course. Exam dates will be scheduled in June, July, September and January.

Contact details of the teacher and individual clarifications

The teacher is available to provide clarifications on request, by receiving individual students or groups. The office of the teacher is located at the Direzione of the Department DICAM, ground floor, Via del Risorgimento. The entrance is from the internal courtyard looking towards Via Vallescura. Teacher can be contacted by email.