Applied Agrohydrology

The objectives of the course are to obtain advanced and applicable knovledge on agrohydrological and soil physical properties and processes at the field scale affecting plant production and the environment. Quantification of properties and modeling of sub-processes being important prerequisites for achieving these goals will be put in focus when possible. 

Topics: Water in soil: hydraulic properties (water retention and hydraulic conductivity, models and model parameterizations). Soil structure: fundamentals and implications (e.g. for water, gas, heat and solute transport); principles of structure management (soil tillage). Evapotranspiration (resistance theory, estimation of reference and actual evapotranspiration, crop water demand, water balances, effects on microclimate). Water flow in soil: fundamentals; crop water uptake, soil evaporation, infiltration, drainage, soil water balance. Design principles for drainage works at field scale and at larger scales; implications of artificial drainage (crop production, environment). Transport of contaminants in soil, leaching: fundamentals and selected cases representing inert, non-adsorbing, sorbing and degradable substances. Non-equilibrium transport, effects of preferential water flow. Field scale variability: spatial variability and how to deal with it.

Course report: The students have to prepare an individual course report (typically 10-15 pages) which has to be submitted to the course responsible before the examination.  The student will through an analysis of self-selected or given problems within the framework of the course, document (examplify) and combine the application of central methods and theory in the report.