The Conference is pleased to announce that it will be able to run a selection of short courses during the conference.   Online registration is available as part of the registration process.

 

SHORT COURSES.  Note:  Short courses are subject to cancellation and refund if the number of registrants are not sufficient to cover the class.  Non-conference attendees can register but will have a lower priority than those who register for the full conference. A $25 handling fee will be charged if a registration for a short course is cancelled after May 15, 2010.

 

Short Course Title	Fee	Time	Day
Steam Restoration Design	$ 100	8:00am–5:00pm	Sunday, June 27, 2010
SRH 2D	$   75	8:00am–5:00pm
Fluvial-Sediment Data	$   45	1:00pm–5:00pm
RiverWare  CANCELLED	$
Curve Number Rainfall-Runoff	$ 120	9:00am–4:00pm
Sediment Transport Modeling	$   50	1:00pm–5:00pm	Thursday, July 1, 2010
Principles of Streambank Erosion	$ 210	10:30am–5:00pm
SEAWAT  CANCELLED	$
HEC-HMS  CANCELLED	$
EXCEL-LEnT	$ 210	10:30am–5:00pm

 

All Sunday courses that start before noon will have morning breaks.  All Sunday courses will have afternoon breaks.  All Thursday courses will have afternoon breaks only.  No lunches are included.

 

Short Courses:  Sunday, June 27, 2010

 

Stream Restoration Design.  Sunday, 8:00am to 5:00pm, $100

Instructors: Jon Fripp, USDA-NRCS National Design, Construction, and Soil Mechanics Center; Kerry Robinson, USDA-NRCS East National Technology Support Center; Jerry Bernard, National Geologist, USDA-NRCS Conservation Engineering Division; and Dave Rosgen, Wildland Hydrology (wildlandhydrology.com)

 

The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has recently released a stream design guide that is a companion to the 1998 interagency document, “Stream Corridor Restoration:  Principles, Processes, and Practices”.  This comprehensive design guide, titled USDA-NRCS NEH-654 Stream Restoration Design Handbook, presents engineering assessment and design tools that are applicable to any stream restoration work, whether it primarily follows a natural stream restoration or is strictly a structural project.  The basis for this short course will be this USDA-NRCS Stream Restoration Design Handbook, which was released in August of 2007.  A copy of this handbook on CD will be provided to the students.  Although the importance of proper planning for stream restoration work will be stressed, the focus of this workshop will be on selected design tools and procedures from the USDA-NRCS Stream Restoration Design Handbook. Specific design tools and short example problems will be provided.

 

The course will focus on the basics of design techniques which have been compiled from over 120 contributing authors and practitioners. The course is therefore of benefit to those who are or will become engaged in designing stream restorations.

 

SRH 2D (U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s two-dimensional hydraulic and sediment transport model-river hydraulics modeling).  Sunday, 8:00am to 5:00pm, $75

Instructors: Yong Lai and Blair Greimann, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation

SRH-2D is a two-dimensional (2D) depth-averaged hydraulic and sediment transport model for river systems developed at the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. It has been used both at Reclamation and many outside institutions, with great success. SRH-2D has a few boasting features. First, SRH-2D uses a flexible mesh that may contain arbitrarily shaped cells. In practice, the hybrid mesh of quadrilateral and triangular cells is recommended though purely quadrilateral or triangular elements may be used. A hybrid mesh achieves the best compromise between solution accuracy and computing demand. Second, SRH-2D adopts very robust and stable numerical schemes with seamless wetting-drying algorithm. Reliable solutions may be obtained with few tuning parameters; program “crash” rarely occurs.

 

SRH-2D is also developed with the objective that a 2D model does not have to be too complex to use. With SRH-2D, users do not have to memorize many commands; they are guided by a preprocessor. SRH-2D model, along with the manual and selected application cases, are freely downloadable at the following Bureau of Reclamation site:  

http://www.usbr.gov/pmts/sediment.

 

The goal of this course is to train attendees to become “modelers” who are knowledgeable about 2D modeling and may apply SRH-2D to their own projects. In the class, the theory of 2D modeling will be given, range of problems that may be solved by SRH-2D are presented with real-life project examples, students will jump into the use of SRH-2D immediately with instructor provided sample cases. It is crucial for students to bring their own laptops to get hands-on experience. Students may also bring their own problems to the class. At the end of the class, it is expected that students can apply SRH-2D to their own projects and know the key steps and key parameters for a successful 2D analysis.

 

Students are expected to bring their own laptops for use during the workshop.

 

RiverWare – an Overview for Managers.  Sunday, 8:30am to 5pm, $125,

Instructor: Edith Zagona, CADSWES, University of Colorado.

RiverWare is a modeling tool used for forecasting and scheduling reservoir and hydropower operations, water rights and water accounting, evaluating alternative operating policies, and planning new projects. RiverWare is used extensively by major water management agencies, utilities, research institutes and consulting companies. This course presents a hands-on overview of RiverWare’s capabilities particularly designed for managers to assess the potential use of this tool in their organizations. Through demonstrations and exercises, the course will teach you how RiverWare works, how it can be integrated with other models, databases and analysis tools, and will show some example applications. The course will focus on:  what is involved in building a model; how multi-objective policies are represented and solved using rulebased simulation;  how water ownership is represented and tracked;  prioritized water rights solution; flood control algoroithms; groundwater-surface water modeling; how RiverWare can automatically communicate with data sources and other programs; output options; how to use multiple run management with stochastic inputs to generate probabilistic results;  multi-objective optimization including hydropower scheduling, and special features for usability and runtime analysis. Examples of applications will illustrate these features.

 

Students are expected to bring their own laptops for use during the workshop.

 

Curve Number Rainfall-Runoff: Professional Application.  Sunday, 9:00am to 4:00pm, $120

Instructors: Richard H. Hawkins, University of Arizona; and Don Woodward, U.S. Department of Agriculture

This short will cover the following sections:

·     Chronology, development, and methodology basics, original goals, limitations, watersheds and data. Also to be covered are Development assumptions and assertions, soils tie-ins, NEH4, Ia/S, CN aligner. Usage conventions.

·     Reevaluation and reinterpretation (1½ hr), Background and handbook tables. Alternate expressions. Three modes of CN: Rainfall-runoff return period concepts; random component interpretations, process approximations. AMCs-ARCs and handbook CN tables. Sensitivity.

·     Recent work (2 hr). Curve Numbers meet reality: How watersheds and Curve Numbers really act; Runoff behavior types; a second look at Ia/S; Hydrologic Soil Groups, CN application explosion, seasonal CNs. Universal runoff response types and CN forms; infiltration and losses. Local calibrations.

·     CN method vis-a-vis general rainfall-runoff hydrology:  Does”S”exist? Complacent/Violent thresholds, international applications.

·     Summary analysis, questions, answers, discussions: Some do’s and don’ts, FAQs: Professional use, perspectives and ponderings. Improvements, replacement?  Class participation, critique, user anecdotes. Improvements, replacement? Research and development needs?

 

Participants will be provided with a course workbook (~100 pages), PowerPoint printouts and handoutsSome of the figures, tables, and handout sheets are shared with the “Report of the ASCE Task Committee on the State of the Practice in Curve Number Hydrology”, by Hawkins, Ward, Woodward, and VanMullem, ca 1115pp. 2009.  The report itself is not supplied as a part of the course.  It may be obtained from ASCE for $52.50 (members) or $70.00 (nom-members).

 

Overview of Collection of Fluvial-Sediment Data.  Sunday, 1:00pm to 5:00pm, $45

Instructors: John R. Gray, G. Douglas Glysson, and Gary Johnson, U.S. Geological Survey

This short course provides an overview of basic fluvial-sediment data-collection techniques with emphasis on fluvial-sediment concepts, sampler characteristics, and sampling techniques.  Methods for collecting suspended-sediment data are emphasized, but overviews of bedload and bed-material data collection techniques are included.  Basic requirements for collecting sufficient, useful sediment data, and considerations in data quality are also presented.

 

The course is geared for professionals and technicians who will be, or are planning on, collecting suspended-sediment data.  U.S. Geological Survey Techniques of Water-Resources Investigations Book 3, C2, “Field Methods for Collection of Fluvial Sediment” and several dozen additional technical resources will be provided on a CD-ROM.

 

This short course is a synopsis of the full 5-day course, “Sediment Data Collection Techniques,” offered annually by the U.S. Geological Survey in Castle Rock and Vancouver, Washington,  (contact J. R. Gray at jrgray@usgs.gov for more information on the full course offering).

 

Short Courses:  Thursday, July 1, 2010

 

Principles of Streambank Analysis and Stabilization. Thursday, 10:30am to 5:00 pm, $210

Instructor: Andrew Simon, USDA Agricultural Research Service, National Sedimentation Laboratory, Oxford, MS

This one-day lecture course is designed for professionals engaged in stream investigation, management, stabilization and restoration. The course is designed to clearly demonstrate the essential links between research, analysis, design, project implementation, and post-project evaluation. Lectures will introduce the fundamental concepts linking streambank processes and geomorphic adjustments in the fluvial system. Field methods to rapidly evaluate the relative stability of alluvial channels and to quantify force and resistance mechanisms that control streambank-erosion processes, failure mechanisms, and the importance of basal scour to sustained bank retreat will be described in detail. Hands-on modeling will provide students with the opportunity to investigate the factors which control bank stability, while also recognizing the significance of these factors when designing mitigation measures. All students will be provided with bank-stability modeling software (with sound effects) for future use, and a CD containing all lectures (in PowerPoint and PDF), and PDFs of relevant technical papers.

 

Course highlights include: Review of fundamental principles behind channel adjustment; Role of bank erosion in fluvial adjustment and sediment yields; Mechanics of streambank erosion; Field investigation methodologies; Bank-stability modeling; Application of the model for design, mitigation strategies, and sediment loadings; Guiding principles for bank stabilization.

 

Prerequisites: Students attending this course should have solid algebraic and analytical skills.  Experience using Microsoft Excel or similar spreadsheet programs is highly recommended.

 

A laptop computer is also recommended for running bank-stability software provided during class.

 

Variable-Density Groundwater Flow and Solute Transport Modeling using SEAWAT, Thursday. 10:30am to 5:00 pm, $200

Instructor: Alyssa Dausman, U.S. Geological Survey

This workshop is an introduction to three-dimensional variable-density groundwater flow and solute transport using SEAWAT, a MODFLOW/MT3DMS-based program.  SEAWAT has been applied to a wide variety of problems including saltwater intrusion, aquifer storage and recovery (ASR), deep-well injection, as well as inland brine transport.  The newest version of SEAWAT (Version 4) can also be used to simulate simultaneous solute and heat transport including variations in viscosity from changes in temperature and/or solute.  As part of this workshop, participants will develop an understanding of: (1) the fundamentals behind SEAWAT, (2) the procedure for designing a SEAWAT model, and (3) the types of problems it can be used to solve.

 

Students will need to bring their own laptops for the workshop

 

EXCEL-LEnT Training for Water Managers.  Thursday, 10:30am to 5:00 pm, $210

Instructor: Darrell G. Fontane, Colorado State University.

This workshop is designed to teach participants how to use some of the features of EXCEL that are particularly relevant to engineering and water resources analysis. It will provide you with examples of engineering applications of EXCEL that demonstrate the features presented in the workshop. Participants will receive a CD containing all the files used at the workshop and accompanying computer-based video tutorials that cover the workshop topics. Participants can review these tutorials to help them remember the techniques presented. The workshop will be based on EXCEL 2007. Note however, that the topics presented in the workshop are applicable to previous versions of EXCEL.

 

Water managers often develop spreadsheets for their own use or to be shared with colleagues. Spreadsheets should be easy to use with required problem data input clearly identified and the output easy to understand. A variety of EXCEL’s tools can be used to minimize errors and to minimize the effort required to provide required input or to perform analyses in the spreadsheet. This workshop will focus on the functionality EXCEL provides to meet these goals of Positive User Guidance, Clarity and Correctness.

 

EXCEL software provides many features that allow the user to develop input controls to make the spreadsheet easy to use and minimize errors. These features include a variety of buttons, list boxes, check boxes and spinner controls. These controls can be used in conjunction with table lookup functions, logical IF tests and conditional formatting to do many things. Further, EXCEL allows the user to record or develop custom macros in Visual Basic for Applications that greatly extend the problem solving power of EXCEL. With a surprisingly small number of Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) commands, users can create their own powerful custom macros and custom scientific or engineering functions.

 

Each student will need to bring a laptops with EXCEL 2007 installed

 

Basic Principles and Data Needs of Sediment Transport Modeling.  Thursday, 1:00pm to 5:00pm, $50

Instructors: Blair Greimann and Yong Lai, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation

This short course will introduce the basic principles of designing a successful sediment transport modeling analysis. Participants will be exposed to a wide range of applications of sediment transport modeling issues. The course will discuss the selection of the sediment transport model and steps in the selection process: identification of the question you want to answer, identification of the process you want to simulate, understanding the limitations of various model types, and then the review of current models. The abilities and limitations of various sediment transport model types, such as sediment budget, one-dimensional, and two-dimensional sediment transport models will be discussed. The course will describe the data requirements and data collection activities necessary for the model input. The focus will be on the collection of information relevant to the particular question you wish to address. Various methods to calibrate model parameters using historical data will be given and, in the absence of historical data, selection of model parameters and sediment transport formulae will be discussed. Finally, if time allows, methods to address model uncertainty will be suggested.

 

Students may bring their own laptop computers for use during the workshop, but they are not absolutely necessary.

 

HEC-HMS and HEC-GeoHMS.  Thursday, 1:00pm to 5:00pm, $100

Instructors: Hydrologic Engineering Center Staff

The Corps of Engineers Hydrologic Engineering Center’s HEC-HMS program and its GIS companion product HEC-GeoHMS are widely used within the engineering community. GeoHMS, an ArcView and ArcGIS extension, is used for pre-processing of an HMS dataset. It allows users to visualize spatial information, document watershed characteristics, perform spatial analysis, delineate basins and streams, and construct an HMS basin file. HMS simulates the precipitation-runoff processes of a dendritic watershed. It provides a wide variety of mathematical models for representing the mass and energy fluxes of the hydrologic cycle: precipitation, evapotranspiration, snowmelt, infiltration, surface runoff, baseflow, channel routing, reservoirs and diversions among others. These model choices include girded and area-averaged methods for event or continuous simulation. This short course will provide an overview and sample application of HMS and GeoHMS.