During Spring 2013, faculty working on the Willamette Water 2100 offered a graduate level course on hydrologic modeling.  The course provided an introduction to many of the different types of hydrologic models used in the project, and provided hands-on experience working with the project's modeling framework, Envision.  The course was led by Dr. Mary Santelmann and Dr. Kellie Vache at OSU, and facilitated by Dr. Scott Wells as PSU.  Lectures and labs were taught via video-conferencing with students and lecturers on both campuses.  The course lectures were video recorded.  Below are descriptions and links to these videos -- they provide a great introduction to Envision and some of the component models utilized in the project.

Week 1:

  • April 2, 2013 - Dr. Mary Santelmann, OSU Water Resources Graduate Program  - Course Overview - Introduction to WRE599/CE410/510 and background on the Willamette Water 2100 project and Envision.
  • April 4, 2013 - Dr. John Bolte, OSU Biological and Ecological Engineering - Introduction to Alternative Futures Analysis and Envision.

Week 2:

  • April 9, 2013 - Dr. Kellie Vache, OSU Biological and Ecological Engineering - 1) More on Envision with an example from Puget Sound; 2) an introduction to Willamette Water 2100 and its plug-in models in Envision; 3) introduction to some Envision definitions - IDU, reach, etc.
  • April 11, 2013 - Dr. John Bolte, OSU Biological and Ecological Engineering - More about Envision, include an explanation of "policies" in Envision and an example of how they are set up and run. The example focuses on population growth and allocation using the plug-in "Target".

Week 3:

  • April 16, 2013 - Dr. Kellie Vache - 1) brief introduction to the climate data used in WW2100; 2) Introduction to hydrologic modeling concepts with a focus on HBV, the hydrologic model used in FLOW, the hydrologic modeling framework in Envision.
  • April 18, 2013 - Dr. Mary Santelmann - Discussion of scenario narratives and the class assignment given to students to write a scenario narrative for a sub-basin in the Willamette.
  • April 19, 2013 - Dr. Kellie Vache - Introduction to FLOW, the hydrologic modeling framework developed for Willamette Water 2100. 1) Background on why it was developed, 2) Key elements and spatial configuration, 3) Intro to XML input files 4) Explanation of hydrologic response units, 5) FLOW plug-ins with an emphasis on HBV, and 6) example videos of FLOW output.

Week 4:

  • April 23, 2013 - Dr. Heejun Chang, PSU Geography  - 1) Overview of PRMS 2) A case study of his work with PRMS in the Willamette Basin to anticipate the affect of climate change in the Willamette Basin.

Week 5:

  • April 30, 2013 - Dr. Anne Nolin, OSU Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences - Introduction to snow accumulation and melt, the significance of snow in hydrology, and an introduction to snow modeling.
  • May 2, 2013 - Dr. Anne Nolin - 1) Snow modeling in HBV and potential shortcomings; 2) snow monitoring in Willamette Water 2100 and related projects and 3) the use of SnowModel in the project and related projects.

Week 6:

  • May 7, 2013 - Dr. Roy Haggerty, OSU Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences - Introduction to groundwater modeling, finite differences, introduction to a class exercise to demonstrate finite difference modeling using Google Docs.
  • May 9, 2013 - Dr. Roy Haggerty - Continuation of class exercise to demonstrate finite difference modeling using Google Docs. Introduction to MODFLOW.

Week 7:

  • May 14, 2013 - Dr. Desiree Tullos, OSU Biological and Ecological Engineering - Overview and background on the USACE Willamette Project dams. 2) Introduction to reservoir operation terminology and operating procedures.
  • May 16, 2013 - Dr. Desiree Tullos - 1) Continued overview of USACE Willamette Project including, irrigation, recreational benefits, environmental flows. 2) Introduction to the 2008 Biological Opinion affecting Willamette River operations 3) Introduction to ResSIM and 4) Modeling reservoir operations in Willamette Water 2100 using ResSIM "Lite".

Week 8:

  • May 21, 2013 - Dr. Scott Wells, PSU Civil & Environmental Engineering - Introduction to surface water quality and hydrodynamic modeling. 1) what is a model and why use one 2) example uses of models 3) about hydrodynamics 4) water quality models.
  • May 23, 2013 - Dr. Scott Wells - Introduction to CE-QUAL-W2 - the model developed by the USACE for hydrodynamic and water quality monitoring. Topics include: computing requirements, data preparation, boundary conditions, model components, model verification and an example from Detroit Reservoir in the Willamette Basin system.

Weeks 9-10:

  • May 28, 2013 - Review and critique of the WW2100 project by WRE 599 students. This review was carried out in the style of a NSF review panel. Students answered evaluative questions and provided feedback that reflected what they had learned about the project and Envision over the 10 week course. Students worked in small groups, and this video includes presentations by each small group at OSU and PSU.
  • Group Project Presentations - WRE 599 group project presentations. Students worked in small groups to develop and run futures scenarios for sub-basins in the Willamette Basin using a preliminary version of Envision with the hydrologic modeling framework FLOW. Students presented outcomes from their group work in these videos. 
    • May 30, 2013 - Presentations by students who worked in the Blue River Watershed and on the McKenzie Watershed.
    • June 4, 2013 - Presentations by students working in the  Santiam Watershed and on the Johnson Creek Watershed.
    • June 6, 2013 - Student presentation on the Yamhill Watershed and a course wrap up presented by Mary Santelmann highlighting some of the accomplishments and lessons learned during the course.