CVEN 5393: Water Resource Systems and Management
Overview
The course focuses on water resources planning and management, taking a systems view where simulation modeling, optimization, statistics, and uncertainty analysis come together to provide a more sustainable and holistic management of this important resource. Here is an introductory video of the water resources context in Colorado:
Course objectives:
- Learn how to analyze water reservoir systems under multiple objectives using simulation modeling, stochastic hydrology, and scenario analysis.
- Master techniques of classical and evolutionary-algorithm based optimization.
- Consider uncertainties such as socioeconomic factors, climate change, and regulatory constraints and their impact on water resources planning and management.
- Use RiverWare as well as other computational techniques including spreadsheets and computer programming to solve water resources planning and management problems.
Topics:
- Reservoir analysis, rule curves, and sizing
- Reservoir simulation using RiverWare
- Water uses (e.g. hydropower, recreational and domestic uses)
- Stochastic streamflow generation, uncertainty analysis, and climate change
- Performance metric analysis including reliability, resilience, and vulnerability
- Simulation-based optimization using evolutionary algorithms
- Linear programming, stochastic programming, and robust optimization
- Multicriteria Decision Analysis
- Bottom-up decision analysis (many-objective robust decision making)
Online Section and Eligibility
The course was offered online in Spring 2020 through CU's Distance Education program. Although the course is not offered in AY 2020-2021 due to Prof. Kasprzyk's sabbatical, it is likely to be offered online in Spring 2022.
At ²ÊÃñ±¦µä, this graduate course is open to CVEN and EVEN students, as well as students from other relevant majors at ²ÊÃñ±¦µä. I teach the course in Spring semesters. There are no formal prerequisites for this course, but I assume that you have familiarity with matrix algebra, calculus, probability, statistics, and basic computer skills (including the ability to apply or learn Python and R programming). Because the course focuses on water resources planning and management, some knowledge of fluid mechanics and hydrology is also assumed. However, students that come from different disciplinary backgrounds should be able to learn enough about water resources to do well in the course.
Free Online Course Textbook
One of the best ways to become familiar with the core material from the course is to peruse the free textbook that we use in the course,
Teaching Elements
I use a series of in-class discussions to engage students within the course. For example, one important method within water resources systems analysis is optimization, which can dictate storages, flows, and releases of water from a reservoir system given assumptions about plausible hydrologic and societal conditions within the optimization problem formulation. However, there is a great deal of uncertainty within different aspects of the planning problem. Students work in small groups to identify which parts of the problem must consider uncertainty (e.g., not knowing the marginal cost of providing water within the optimization objective). I co-authored several years ago. We also cover quantitative techniques used both in water resources systems analysis and the management of environmental problems in general. The main methods include , linear and non-linear optimization, and optimization using evolutionary algorithms.
Syllabus and Sample Lecture
Please find links below to documents relevant to the course, from Spring 2016. Since this graduate class covers recent cutting-edge topics in research, this schedule is subject to change.