Water Resources and Hydrologic Sciences
and Engineering Graduate Programs

The Water Resources, Hydrologic & Environmental Sciences Division provides a balanced program of study in water resources, environmental science, and surface and groundwater hydrology. This involves the study of both the quantity and quality of the earth’s water resources and its interrelationship with the environment. This division prepares students to solve complex water resources, hydrologic and environmental problems. Computer models, geographic information systems, expert systems, decision support systems, and multimedia computing environments are used extensively in the teaching and research conducted by faculty and students. The division is comprised of the following two nationally and internationally renown programs: Hydrologic and Environmental Sciences and Engineering and Groundwater Environmental Hydrogeology.

The Water Resources, Hydrologic & Environmental Sciences Division carries out basic and applied research in hydrologic and water resources sciences and engineering including surface, soil, and groundwater hydrology, land surface-atmosphere interactions, and their engineering, environmental, economic, and social applications to water resources. The emphasis in surface hydrology includes the analysis and modeling of hydrological processes such as precipitation, infiltration, stream flow, and surface water storage at various temporal and spatial scales, land-surface atmosphere interaction, environmental hydrology, watershed and river basin modeling, and statistical/stochastic hydrology. The emphasis in soil and groundwater hydrology includes the dynamics of soil moisture processes, analysis and modeling of multiphase flow through porous media, modeling of groundwater flow, analysis and modeling of hydrogeological processes, contaminant transport in the unsaturated and saturated zones, and environmental hydrogeology. The emphasis in water resources and hydrologic engineering lies on the application of physical, stochastic, and systems and computing engineering techniques for estimation and control of extreme events such as floods and droughts, risk and uncertainty analysis in water and environmental systems, integrated hydrologic, ecological, and socioeconomic impact assessments of climate variability and change, conjunctive use of surface and groundwater systems, forecasting of precipitation, streamflow, reservoir levels, and groundwater levels, design of surface and groundwater reservoir systems, and design of surface and subsurface hydrologic gauging network systems. Computer models, geographic information systems, expert systems, decision support systems, and multimedia computing environments are used extensively.

Research interest of current faculty include the following:

• Regional analysis of extreme hydrologic events such as floods and droughts
• Flood prediction based on systematic, historical, and paleoflood data
• Drought prediction based on stochastic approaches
• Stochastic analysis and modeling of geophysical processes such as precipitation, streamflow, soil moisture, and groundwater flow.
• Risk and uncertainty analysis of water resources and environmental systems
• Forecasting of hydrologic processes at various temporal and spatial scales
• The effect of climate forcing functions such as El Niño on extreme hydrologic events
• Physically based and distributed modeling of watershed and river basin systems
• Applications of geographic information systems (GIS) in hydrology and water resources
• Land/surface atmosphere interactions: the development of new land surface hydrology parameterization for use in general circulation models and their effects on regional climate
• Impacts of natural and anthropogenic climatic variability and climate change in water resources projects such as irrigated agriculture and hydropower development
• Analysis of the spatial variability of hydrologic processes such as soil moisture, in particular, their scaling and multi-scaling characteristics, and their relationship to runoff and infiltration processes
• The complementary relationship that exists between regional actual evapotranspiration and regional potential evapotranspiration
• The characterization of the interaction between surface runoff and micro- and macro-topography and infiltration
• The development of erosion and sediment dynamics models for estimating the genesis and evolution of river networks
• The assessment of hydrologic, ecological, and socioeconomic impacts of climate variability
• Groundwater contamination from hazardous wastes
• Aquifer remediation and restoration
• Aquifer storage and recovery systems (groundwater recharge)
• Assessment of groundwater contamination from agricultural practices such as chemigation
• Stochastic modeling of nuclear waste isolation
• Heat and mass transfer in porous media
• Leachate movement from spoil piles
• Immiscible fluid flow through porous media
• Conjunctive use of surface and groundwater systems
• Migration and cleanup of gasoline and other fuels from leaky underground storage tanks
• Movement of air and water in soils during the infiltration process
• Fracture flow in porous media

The Water Resources and Hydrologic Sciences Division has been actively involved in research projects and technology transfer activities at the state, national, and international levels. Sponsors of research programs include: Colorado Water Resources Research Institute, Colorado Division of Water Resources, Colorado State University Agricultural Experiment Station, National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Department of Energy, National Institute for Global Environmental Change, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Army Research Office, Rocky Mountain Arsenal, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Colorado Division of Water Resources, Dow Chemical, National Park Service, Federal Highway Administration, and Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. At the international level, cooperative research programs and faculty exchanges have been conducted, sponsored by U.S. Agency for International Development (AID), U.S. Information Agency, UNDP, FAO, World Bank, and NATO, with a number of countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Egypt, England, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Uruguay, and Yugoslavia.

Teaching and research in The Water Resources, Hydrologic & Environmental Sciences Division are extensively supported by state-of-the-art computing facilities. These include Colorado State University’s Academic Computing and Network Services with its advanced visualization laboratory, the Department of Civil Engineering computing facilities, and the facilities and equipment of the Local Area Network for the College of Engineering (LANCE). In addition, the Computing Hydrology Laboratory (CHL) located at the Engineering Research Center is also used for research activities particularly in surface water hydrology and water resources engineering. The CHL has been developing and implementing a number of computer watershed models as well as software for statistical and stochastic analysis of hydrologic data by using expert systems and GIS technologies. In addition, research and student work in soil and groundwater hydrology makes extensive use of PC microcomputers, UNIX workstations, and supercomputers such as CRAY YMP to solve large-scale modeling problems; and a computer visualization laboratory, GWAVE, which has several Silicon Graphics computer workstations, and a microcomputer network. The models and analysis packages are used extensively in both graduate teaching and research.

Outdoor and indoor laboratories support the graduate research program at the Engineering Research Center. For those research problems which lend themselves to laboratory study, the Division maintains several well equipped and modern laboratory facilities for physical modeling. The Porous Media and Groundwater Laboratory is well-equipped to study unsaturated, saturated, and multiphase flow processes in soils. The large hydraulics laboratory can also be used for more extensive studies. The wide variety of field conditions in Colorado also provides an excellent opportunity to study different surface and groundwater hydrology facets in the field. Graduate students are encouraged to assist in both the study of field and laboratory problems.

Master of Science Program of Study (Plan A: with thesis)

CE 520	Physical Hydrology	3 credits
CE 622	Risk Analysis of Water/Environmental Systems	3
CE 631	Solutions to Groundwater Problems	3
CE 531	Groundwater Hydrology	3
M 531 or 532	Applied Mathematics I or II	3
Electives	(see below)
CE 699CV	Thesis in Water Resources and Hydrologic Sciences	6

                                                                                            TOTAL: 30 credits

Master of Science Program of Study (Plan B: without thesis)

CE 520	Physical Hydrology	3 credits
CE 622	Risk Analysis of Water/Environmental Systems	3
CE 631	Solutions to Groundwater Problems	3
CE 531	Groundwater Hydrology	3
M 531 or 532	Applied Mathematics I or II	3
Electives	(see below)	15
CE 695CV	Independent Study in Water Resources and Hydrologic Sciences	2

                                                                                                               TOTAL: 32 credits

Doctor of Philosophy Program of Study

The sample programs shown below assume completion of an acceptable M.S. program. Final programs are determined in conjunction with the advisor and academic committee.

Emphasis in Surface Water Hydrology

CE 524	Modeling Watershed Hydrology	4 credits
CE 716	Erosion and Sedimentation	3
CE 721	Stochastic Water and Environmental Systems	3
CE 722	Large-Scale Hydrology	3
CE 531	Groundwater Hydrology	3
AT 601	Atmospheric Dynamics I	2
Electives	(see below)	12
CE 799CV	Dissertation in Water Resources and Hydrologic Sciences	12

                                                                                                 TOTAL: 42 credits (beyond the M.S. degree)

Emphasis in Soil, Groundwater/ Environmental Hydrogeology

CE 538	Aqueous Chemistry	3 credits
CE 633	Groundwater Contaminant Transport Modeling	3
CE 635	Quantitative Hydrogeology	3
CB 540	Groundwater Measurements	3
CE 733	Flow in Porous Media	3
SC 770	Advanced Soil Physics	3
Electives	(see below)	12
CE 799CV	Dissertation in Water Resources and Hydrologic Sciences	12

                                                                                                  TOTAL: 42 credits (beyond the M.S.degree)

Emphasis in Water Resources and Hydrologic Engineering

CE 522	Engineering Hydrology	3 credits
CE 624	Control of Flood and Droughts	3
CE 631	Solutions to Groundwater Problems	3
CE 721	Stochastic Water and Encironmental Systems	3
NR 422	GIS Applications in Natural Resource Management	3
NR 503	Remote Sensing for Resource Management	3
Electives	(see below)	12
CE 799CV	Dissertation in Water Resources and Hydrologic Sciences	12

                                                                                                   TOTAL: 42 credits (beyond the M.S.degree)

Elective Courses Depending on the Program and Emphasis (the list below does not include those courses already listed above under typical MS and Ph.D. programs):

AT 606 Climatology
AT 652 Atmospheric Remote Sensing
AT 753 Atmospheric Water Resources
CB 462 Environmental Law
CB 532 Drainage and Wetlands Engineering
CB 638 Groundwater Quality and Contaminant Transport
CE 544 Water Resources Planning
CE 545 Management and Monitoring of Water Quality
CE 546 Water Resources Systems Analysis
CE 577 Geographic Information Systems in Engineering
CE 612 Open Channel Flow
CE 623 Water Quality Hydrology
CE 645 Computer-Aided Water Management and Control
CE 657 Geoenvironmental Engineering Principles
CE 658 Geoenvironmental Engineering Application
CE 717 River Mechanics
EG 510 Linear Programming and Network Flows
EG 511 Dynamic Programming
EG 517 Linear Multivariable Systems
EG 518 Optimal Control
EG 520 Non-linear Programming
ER 452 Hydrogeology
ER 474 Snow Hydrology
ER 516 Cumulative Effects and Watershed Analysis
ER 520 Evapotranspiration
ER 574 Advanced Topics in Snow Hydrology
ER 616 Hillslope Hydrology and Runoff Processes
ER 652 Fluvial Geomorphology
ER 674 Modeling in Snow Hydrology
GS 510 Fundamentals of High Performance Computing
M 540 Dynamical Systems
M 561 Numerical Analysis I
M 651 Numerical Analysis II
M 652 Finite Element Methods
NR 505 Concepts in GIS
NR 575 Systems Ecology
NR 660 Biogeochemical Cycling in Ecosystems
ST 420 Probability and Mathematical Statistics I
ST 430 Probability and Mathematical Statistics II
ST 520 Introduction to Probability Theory
ST 521 Stochastic Processes I
ST 522 Stochastic Processes II
ST 525 Analysis of Time Series I
ST 526 Analysis of Time Series II
ST 530 Mathematical Statistics

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Last Modified11/02/2004