CEE 6900 HYDROMETEOROLOGY
(FALL 2005)
BACKGROUND:
Twenty years ago, you could hardly find a course titled ‘Hydrometeorology’. Back then,
the need to study the fate, distribution and occurrence of water in our natural environment
through a combined understanding of hydrology of the land processes and meteorology
of the atmosphere was not recognized. In fact, meteorologists and hydrologists often
pursued the scientific inquiry within their supposedly well-defined area to look for
answers to their problems. For example, a hydrologist interested in the flood problem felt
it unimportant to know the atmospheric physics behind the formation of clouds, the role
played by solar radiation and wind. Vice versa, a meteorologist could not appreciate the
implications of his/her understanding of solar radiation, cloud type and atmospheric
stability on terrestrial processes such as, say, infiltration and evapo-transpiration.
Personally, I like to compare the ‘old-school’ mentality to a type of unforeseen ‘tunnel
vision’. Today, that is however no longer the case. With population growth and rising
demands of our ‘comfortable’ living, earth’s precious water resources are becoming
scarcer. We have begun to realize that we live in a world where the earth’s environment
has complex interactions that should not be ignored in order to get a better understanding
of the spatio-temporal variability of our water resources. After all, water is the very
essence of life – too much or too little at the wrong time and wrong place is not what we
want. We do realize now that we need to rid ourselves of this ‘tunnel vision’ by bringing
meteorological concepts closer to the study of hydrology and therein remove the artificial
boundaries of knowledge.
WHAT THIS COURSE PROVIDES
This course titled “Hydrometeorology” essentially represents an effort to impart a
‘combined approach (hydrology+meteorology) perspective’ focusing at the interface
between hydrology and meteorology. While it is virtually impossible to deliver a very
deep understanding of both hydrology and meteorology (you get year long courses on
these topics), we shall study the concepts and principles in a fashion such that, once
completed, the student will leave with an appreciation of the physical processes of the
atmosphere that dictate the hydrology of water on the land surface and vice versa (i.e.,
water cycle). In simple terms, one major aim is reduce the amount of tunnel vision (sorry
for repeating this word again!) on our understanding of the water cycle by beginning to
learn to study at the interface between hydrology and meteorology. We shall also stress
the ‘land surface’ as our ‘playground’ in this course as that is where we live today and
defines our primary environment.
OFFICIAL GOAL
“This course is designed to introduce graduate students to natural mechanisms for land
atmosphere interaction that dictate the dynamics of the water cycle.”
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