GE4211

honors level, undergraduate module (4000 level)
offered by Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at National University of Singapore (NUS)
held once per week; seminar duration 3 h (actual 2.5 h)
100% Continuous Assessment (CA), i.e. no final exam
class-size: ~40 students
module coordinator: Sem. 2 of academic year (AY) 2017/2018 (1^st time teaching this module, major syllabus changes)

All details below were provided to students on the NUS learning management system, IVLE.

Synopsys

This module is an introduction to watershed hydrology and the physical principles governing the hydrological cycle. The module further provides a holistic approach that integrates these hydrologic process within the framework of Integrated Watershed Management (IWM). IWM does not focus only on the management of the water resources, but looks at the watershed as one integrated system (including the land and vegetative resources too). IWM aims at managing the entire watershed in a way that ensures long-term and sustainable provision of goods and services. After covering the core principles, the focus of the module will shift on Singapore and other Asian examples.

Learning Outcomes

After completing this module, students should:

demonstrate understanding of hydrology and watershed management principles, methods, and applications;
expand their knowledge about current integrated water resource management strategies in Singapore;
gain experience in dissecting technical texts (peer-review journal articles) broadly related to hydrology and water resource management;
improve their transferable skills, such as:
- self-organization and autonomous decision-making while maintaining a consensus among group-members;
- effective communication of complex ideas and concepts.

Teaching mode

As this is a 4000 level module, students are expected to be active participants during the seminars. Seminar sessions will combine traditional lecturing and class discussion or other active (and interactive) student learning activities. The traditional lecture serves the purpose of brushing up (or introducing) definitions and concepts, which are fundamental to the specific field. The class discussion and class-activities provide an opportunity for the students to reflect upon and share with their classmates the newly acquired (through self-prep.) knowledge.

Syllabus overview

This is an overview of the general topics covered during the weekly seminars. The detailed break-down of topics, learning activities, as well as pdf. files of the lecture slides are provided in the Weekly Lesson Plan (scroll down).

Week 1 (W1 | 15 Jan ’18): Intro to module + expectations; Introduction to Hydrology & Integrated Watershed Management
Week 2 (W2 | 22 Jan ’18): Hydrologic Cycle and the Water Budget
Week 3 (W3 | 29 Jan ’18): Precipitation + Project Group Formation
Week 4 (W4 | 5 Feb ’18): Evaporation, Interception, and Transpiration
Week 5 (W5 | 12 Feb ’18): Inﬁltration, Pathways of Water Flow, and Recharge
Week 6 (W6 | 19 Feb ’18): Streamﬂow Measurement and Analysis + “Elevator Pitch” (Presenting project idea, scope, plans; 5min)
Week 7 (W7 | 5 Mar ’18): Groundwater and Groundwater– Surface Water Exchange
Week 8 (W8 |12 Mar ’18): Hydrological extremes: Droughts
Week 9 (W9 | 19 Mar ’18): Hydrological extremes: Floods
Week 10 (W10 | 26 Mar ’18): Guest lecture by Ms LAU Yingshan on “Singapore’s Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters (ABC Waters) Programme”
Week 11 (W11 | 2 Apr ’18): Field trip to Marina Barrage
Week 12 (W12 | 9 Apr ’18): Project Presentations + peer-evaluation (round 1)
Week 13 (W13 | 16 Apr ’18): Project Presentations + peer-evaluation (round 2) + wrap-up

Reading Materials

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The lectures for weeks 1-7 are based on Part 1 “Watersheds, Hydrologic Processes, and Pathways” (Chapters 1-7) of:

Hydrology and the Management of Watersheds, 4th edition (2013) by Kenneth N. Brooks, Peter F. Ffolliott Joseph A. Magner (available as e-book at NUS library, @publisher)

Additionally, other relevant materials are used for discussion and in-class activities. Further details are provided in the Weekly Lesson Plan (scroll down).

Assessment

This module is with 100% CA, so the final grade is formed as follows:

Participation in class (presence) + submitting field notes from the field trip (10%)
Two quizzes, incl. couple of exercises (individual assignments) (2 x 20% weight): mixture of MCQs and short discussion questions based on the lecture material from weeks 1-7. The first quiz was entirely home-work based and students had 1 week to complete it. This format proved to be inefficient in terms of grading. Way too many students got near perfect score, which shows that students did revise the lecture material and took time to find the correct answers, however, since we have to grade on a curve, grades need to be well distributed along the entire gradient. So, the second quiz was done in-class for limited time (40 min). Additionally, students had a week to complete two exercises at home. Everyone was working on the same assignment, which surprisingly did not result in improved performance.
Project (group-work in groups of 4): 1) included project idea presentation (“elevator pitch”), 2) submitting group project report (30%), 3) final project presentation (10%). The project topic was purposefully broad, so the groups could decide on what to focus. The topic was formulated as “Hydrologic & IWM assessment for your favorite Singaporean reservoir“.
Peer-evaluation of project presentation (5%): during the final presentations, groups engaged in peer-evaluation based on provided grading rubric and assessment sheet. The qualitative and quantitative feedback from each group was compiled, anonymised and passed along with my own feedback to the specific groups. The peer-evaluation was used, so students listen actively while the other groups are presenting their work.
Self-assessment (5%): students were asked to fill-in self-assessment forms, so they reflect on their contribution the group-work, on the challenges of this specific assignment, and what could be improved or done differently. The self-assessment forms also provided insight into the group-dynamics and helped with assigning individual grades for the project component.

Project details

Each group had to choose one of the 17 reservoirs of Singapore, except for Marina Reservoir. The research component of this project had to have field-based observations. Students were expected to visit the site (their reservoir) and based on their observations to provide qualitative hydrological, geomorphological, ecohydrological or other relevant to the integrated watershed management characterization. They could focus also on the functions of the reservoir and observe how these functions are manifested in the field. Taking photos to illustrate their observations was encouraged. Next to the field observations, it was expected that students would conduct research about the development of the reservoir (based on literature sources). Another required component of the project was the estimation of annual reservoir recharge (or at least an attempt for estimation). For this estimation students could use available data on precipitation. The catchment area could be determined from available topographic maps (those are available in the Map Lab at the Department). Any other relevant source could be used as well, even though open data for Singapore water resources is very limited. The report could also include analysis on the integration of reservoir functions.
The assignment was purposefully left open for interpretations. The groups were expected to define their project goals and limit the scope of their work.

Detailed Weekly Lesson Plan + Lecture Slides

W1

W1: Introduction to Hydrology & Integrated Watershed Management

Part 1 of the seminar included short intro: who am I & what’s my background, followed by students presenting themselves. After the short intro, the module details and my expectations are overviewed. See lecture slides in the preview below (left).

Part 2 (some was left for week 2):

what is watershed and why is it used; why do we need to characterize our watersheds and what does that mean; brush up on watershed delineation and Strahler order classification, as well as, presenting the geomorphological perspective (headwaters; erosional, transitional, depositional zones).
defining Integrated Watershed Management: what it is, what different strategies are there, and why is it used. These concepts are illustrated with two examples from Singapore and an example from Vancouver.

Activity (left for homework): delineating a watershed; determining the Strahler order of all tributaries in a 5^th order watershed.

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Synopsys

Learning Outcomes

Teaching mode

Syllabus overview

Reading Materials

Assessment

Detailed Weekly Lesson Plan + Lecture Slides

W1: Introduction to Hydrology & Integrated Watershed Management

W2: Hydrologic Cycle and the Water Budget

W3: Precipitation

W4: Evaporation, Interception, and Transpiration

W5: Inﬁltration, Pathways of Water Flow, and Recharge

W6: Streamﬂow Measurement and Analysis

W7: Groundwater and Groundwater– Surface Water Exchange

W8: Hydrological extremes: Droughts

W9: Hydrological extremes: Floods

W10: Singapore’s water management (guest lecture)

W11: Field trip to Marina Barrage

Field trip info-sheet

Event Safety Plan (required)

Notes (field-trip prep.)

Activity-based Risk Assessment (required)

W12: Project Presentations + peer-evaluation

Marking Rubric & Peer-evaluation Form

W13: Project Presentations + peer-evaluation + wrap-up

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