Module GEOG40530: HYDROLOGICAL HAZARDS

Department: Geography

GEOG40530: HYDROLOGICAL HAZARDS

Prerequisites

• None.

Corequisites

• UNDERSTANDING RISK, FUNDAMENTALS OF RISK RESEARCH, RISK FRONTIERS, DISSERTATION (BY RESEARCH OR VOCATIONAL)

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• The aim of this module is to provide students with fundamental knowledge of hydrological hazards, with a particular focus upon flood risk, its causes, the role of pathways and feedbacks, the changing environmental drivers influencing them, including climate change, and the ways that flood risk might be investigated and managed as part of a risk management strategy.

Content

• The module will be divided into four blocks
• 1. Floods, droughts, drivers, sources, pathways, impacts (1 x 2 hour lecture)
• 2. Climate, rainfall and catchment processes, hazard quantification (statistical; rainfall-runoff modelling) (3 x 2 hour lectures; 2 x 2 hour practicals, 2 x 2 hour workshops)
• 3. River and floodplain processes, hydrodynamic routing, inundation modelling (3 x 2 hour lectures; 2 x 2 hour practicals, 2 x 2 hour workshops)
• 4. Vulnerabilities, resilience and management; economic and social drivers of flood risk, approaches to vulnerability assessment, flood risk in catastrophe models (3 x 2 hour lectures, 1 x 2 hour practical, 1 x 2 hour workshop)

Learning Outcomes

• 1. Understanding of the primary drivers of flood risk and the interactions between elements of the flood risk system, including feedbacks
• 2. Understanding of the role played by environmental change, catchment management, and social and economic processes (including urbanisation) in driving flood risk
• 3. Understanding of the basics of the hydrological and hydraulic sciences required as inputs to flood risk analysis, and the associated tools used in those sciences.

• 1. Ability to undertake return period analysis using the statistical method
• 2. Ability to model both hydrological problems (as an alternative to the statistical method) and hydraulic problems (for routing and inundation), including awareness of data issues, calibration and validation.
• 3. Ability to link flood hazard analysis to vulnerability questions, including the data and methods used in vulnerability analysis.

• 1. Presentation skills
• 2. Report writing skills

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• There are three modes of teaching: lectures will provide core understanding, including that associated with the subject knowledge, and the underpinning science and social science to enable acquisition of necessary subject skills; practical exercises will be used to develop the specific subject skills, based around case examples linked to Durham research; workshops will be used to develop student understanding of lecture-based material and to explore key outcomes from practical exercises completed to make sure that subject skills are fully developed, as well as to provide generic training on the identified key skills. Independent study will be required of students so as to deepen their subject knowledge through reading, which will be discussed and developed through workshops, and to develop their practical skills, with practical classes assisting with these. We will assess subject knowledge through asking students to provide a written review of the fundamental elements of a flood risk analysis and the associated limits of such analyses. We will assess subject skills through short practical exercises linked to each practical and a detailed report on any one practical exercise completed. Key skills (report writing and presentation) will be assessed through a presentation and the report.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Formative assessment will be provided through providing students with an opportunity to complete an essay in advance on which they will be given feedback. NB: formative work is a compulsory part of this module.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University