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Definitions and the Education in Hydrology

* Contents

• Definitions
• The Education of Hydrologists
• References
• Opportunities in the Hydrological Sciences

* Definitions

* Hydrology : the logos of the waters, or the science that deals with the waters of the earth, their occurence, circulation and distribution, their chemical and physical properties, and their interaction with their environment, including their relations to living beings.

* Water management : planned development, distribution and use of water resources, in accordance with predetermined objectives and with respect of both quantity and quality of the water resources.

* Water resources technology : the development and application of (new) technologies to increase and improve the supply both in quantity and quality, interpreted in terms of availability of surface and underground waters.

The above definitions should be considered in the light of two reports which were recently published.

Note : Parts of these reports are presented here for information only : they may not reflect all opinions of the ICP-partners.

* The Education of Hydrologists

Report of an IAHS/UNESCO Panel on hydrological education, by J.E. Nash, P.S. Eagleson, J.R. Philip and W.H. Van der Molen. Hydrological Sciences Journal 35,6,12/1990 : 597-607.

* Summary and Recommendations

The major inadequacies of present-day hydrology are :

1. Methodological deficiencies
2. The slowness and unevenness of the advance of our scientific understanding of hydrology through research, and
3. The slow diffusion of knowledge from research to practice.

The Panel believes that a conscious effort to strengthen education in hydrology is the primary means open to us, to remedy these deficiencies. In broad terms, it sees the aims and content of education in hydrology at the university level as

1. to develop and improve awareness of the totality of interconnected (mainly physical) processes involved in the hydrologic cycle.
2. to provide the maximum possible training in relevant areas of the basic scientific disciplines underpinning hydrology.
3. to develop the connections between those basic disciplines and the scientific study of various hydrological processes.
4. to stress the central roles of observation and experimentation in the scientific study of hydrology.
5. to develop more fully and clearly the connections between scientific knowledge of hydrologic processes and the current (and potentially improved) professional practice of hydrology.

In light of the above, the Panel makes the following recommendations:

1. Undergraduate education, such as now occurs typically in university departments of Earth Sciences should give explicit attention to hydrology as an integral component of geoscience with sufficient depth and coverage to motivate students to pursue hydrology as a career. The programme should include the introduction of topics such as the global hydrologic cycle, the coupled flux of heat and moisture at soil/vegetation, snow/ice, and water surfaces, the role of precipitation and evaporation in atmospheric and oceanic dynamics, the role of water in shaping Earth’s surface, global hydroclimatology, and the role of water in life.

2. Universities should consider the establishment of the institutional mechanisms and academic offerings necessary for the support of multidisciplinary Ph.D. programs in hydrologic science. These would differ due to local tradition and constraints and might vary from separate Departments of Hydrological Science to ad hoc programs assembled from across the institution to address different hydrological topics.

3. Present postgraduate professional courses in hydrology should be examined critically with a view to providing for greater emphasis on the basic sciences and a greater variety of hydrological sub-fields. A conscious effort should be made to introduce experimental and observational material into the courses.

4. Every effort should be made to ensure that the developments in hydrological science made in the geoscience departments are made available to students of applied hydrology. Close contact between the two streams should be established by joint appointments, visiting lecturers and possible by geoscience departments offering some courses specifically for engineering hydrologists.

5. Hydrological instruction in applications areas such as Civil, Agricultural an Environmental Engineering, and Forestry should be modified to increase their basic science content.

* References

"Opportunities in the Hydrologic Sciences", NRC, 1990, National Academy Press, Washington DC. "Curricula and Syllabi in Hydrology" by Chandra and Mostertman, UNESCO Technical Papers in Hydrology, no.22, Paris 1983.

"Evaluation of the UNESCO sponsored postgraduate courses in hydrology and water resources" by N.B. Ayibotele, with contributions by M.J. Mostertman and U. Maniak, UNESCO Technical Documents in Hydrology, Paris 1988.

* Opportunities in the Hydrological Sciences

A report of the Committee on Opportunities in the Hydrological Sciences, Water Science and Technology Board. Commission on Geosciences, Environment and Resources. National Research Council. National Academic Press, Washington DC. 1991

* Excerpt

* Educational Issues

Higher education in hydrology, especially at the graduate level, has long been the province of engineering departments in most universities. Doctoral and master’s degree programs administered by these departments have been directed toward the traditional concerns of water resources development, hazard mitigation, and water management as predicated on societal needs. The research focus in these departments has properly been the analysis and solution of problems related to engineering practice, on the premise that these problems contribute palpably to the technical knowledge base required for water resources allocation, the management of floods and droughts, and pollution control. Current societal needs, as expressed through legislative action or executive orders, are as important to the choice of research problems and their methods of solution as are the flow of scientific ideas and technological breakthroughs.

This well-developed and successful line of inquiry differs markedly from that pursued in the pure sciences, such as chemistry. The difference, in fact, is exactly analogous to that between the disciplines of chemistry and chemical engineering. Chemistry is the science that deals with the composition, structure, and properties of substances and the reactions that they undergo. Chemical engineering deals with the design, development, and application of manufacturing processes in which materials undergo changes in their properties. The first discipline is a science, dealing with puzzle solving (i.e., motivated by a question), whereas the second is an application of science, dealing with problem solving (i.e., motivated by the answer). Hydrology has a long and distinguished history of problem solving, but where is the antecedent science of puzzle solving ?
The education of hydrologic scientists offers challenges as great as those in engineering hydrology, but the spirit of the enterprise is different, just as it is between education in chemistry and in chemical engineering. The choice of research problem is occasioned by its level of development within the hierarchy of the science, by the availability of new methods with which to solve it, and by the desire to understand a hydrologic phenomenon more deeply. The solution of the problem advances the development of the science and expands the conceptual framework that gives it meaning. It is this kind of internally driven intellectual pursuit that motivates the pure scientist and that must be instilled by the educational process that forms her or his professional outlook. That is the challenge to hydrologic science, and it differs from the challenge to engineering.

As a result of this challenge, graduate education in the hydrologic sciences should be pursued independently of civil engineering. Some universities do this by housing "water science" programs in departments such as geography or geology. However, few offer a coherent program that treats hydrology as a separate geoscience. It is a premise of this report that hydrology - expanded in scope, importance, and potential - must escape mere inclusion as an option under engineering, geology, or natural resources programs. Establishment of specialized Ph.D. and master’s degree programs is, therefore, necessary to enhance the identity of hydrology as an established science. Graduates are needed who are considered first and foremost as hydrologists, not as civil engineers or geologists who know something about hydrology.

* Undergraduate Education in the Hydrologic Sciences

Few undergraduate programs exist in hydrology, and most professionals gain entry to the field from engineering or from the geosciences. However, the geosciences and civil engineering both have suffered a precipitous decline in undergraduate enrollment in recent years. Thus the hydrologic sciences face a potential recruitment problem created, at least in part, by the increasing difficulties students face as they enroll in courses in these majors, the primary obstacle being the required capabilities in physical science and mathematics.

The nearly universal demand for computer literacy has left students with little time for commitment to laboratory and field courses. The consequences of this are both profound and disturbing. Students (and faculty) have become separated from the physical world they seek to master. If a major rejuvenation of the "observational" components of higher education were to occur, it would serve to improve the quality of professionals entering hydrologic science and also perhaps to attract larger numbers of experientially motivated students to the field.