Courses

NREN 504 Freshwater Resources (4 credits)
Instructor: Wil Wollheim

Major determinants of freshwater resources including hydrologic cycle and water balance, precipitation, stream-flow measurement, pollution, water supply and sewage treatment, water resource management and regulation.

NREN 707/807 Environmental Modeling (4 credits)
Instructor: Wil Wollheim

Course focuses on techniques for ecosystem, biogeochemical and hydrological modeling. Readings from the current literature; review of existing models and of methods of model evaluation. Course goals include understanding key principles, types, and techniques of environmental modeling; improving quantitative skills and their application to scientific issues; building simple models, and applying these models to address environmental questions; critical analysis of environmental models (analysis); reading, discussing, and evaluating the use and results of models in scientific applications.

NREN 751/851 Aquatic Ecosystems (4 credits)
Instructor: Wil Wollheim

Energy flow and nutrient cycling in streams, rivers and lakes, with an emphasis on understanding the control of primary productivity, decomposition and community structure by both hydrologic and biotic drivers. Role of aquatic ecosystems in carbon and nitrogen budgets at watershed, regional, and global scales. Impacts of environmental changes such as global climate change and suburbanization on aquatic ecosystems.

NREN 905 Grant Writing (2 credits)
Instructor: Wil Wollheim

Macro-scale Hydrology I
Instructors: Wil Wollheim and Richard Lammers

The objective of this course is to introduce students to the study and application of hydrology at regional to global scales, and how it supports the management of sustainable water resources in a changing global environment. Key topics include elements of the global water cycle, representation of hydrological processes at coarse scales, examples of macro-scale hydrology models and analysis, hydrologic coupling with biogeochemical cycles, and assessment of human impacts. Applications that stress water resource sustainability at regional to global scales will be emphasized.

Macro-scale Hydrology II
Instructors: Wil Wollheim and Richard Lammers

Students and instructors jointly select a research topic in macro-scale hydrology to be analyzed in depth during the course of the semester. A primary goal is the preparation of a manuscript for publication in a refereed scientific journal. Extensive library research, reading of recent and relevant scientific literature, technical analysis, writing. Course designed to be taken two consecutive semesters (fall and spring). Prereq: Macro-scale hydrology I.

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