LAWI100328 Environmental currents under climate change

Type
course with non-continuous assessment
Semester hours
1
Lecturer (assistant)
Holzner, Markus
Organisation
Hydraulic Engineering and River Research
Offered in
Wintersemester 2026/27
Languages of instruction
Deutsch
Content

The course “Environmental Fluid Mechanics in a Changing Climate” introduces fundamental and applied concepts of environmental fluid mechanics in the context of climate change, with a focus on aquatic systems. Central to the course are fluid-dynamical processes affected by climate-induced changes in temperature, stratification, extreme events, and material inputs. The course combines principles of turbulence, transport, and stratification physics with applications to rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and selected geophysical flow systems.
Main topics include:
•Fundamentals of environmental fluid mechanics
•Density-driven flows
•Thermal stratification and stability in lakes and reservoirs
•Turbulence, mixing, and transport processes in natural waters
•Interactions between flow and biological processes
•Hydrodynamics of climate-related extreme events
•Introduction to large-scale geophysical circulation systems (AMOC) from a fluid-mechanical perspective
The course is taught in a block format. Each week consists of three teaching units, with approximately two theory-oriented units and one exercise- or problem-oriented unit. The problem-oriented sessions include simplified calculation examples, scaling analyses, case studies, and the interpretation of measurement and simulation data. The aim is to connect fundamental fluid-mechanical concepts with current climate-change-related challenges in aquatic environmental systems.
Previous knowledge expected

Basic knowledge of hydraulics at the Bachelor level is required. Students are expected to be familiar with the continuity equation, momentum balance, pressure forces, pipe and open-channel flow, and fundamental dimensionless numbers. Basic knowledge of mathematics and physics (calculus, simple differential equations) is also assumed.
Objective (expected results of study and acquired competences)

After successful completion of the course, students will be able to:
•describe and physically classify fundamental processes of environmental fluid mechanics in natural waters;
•analyze the effects of climate-induced changes on flow, mixing, and transport processes in aquatic systems;
•apply dimensionless numbers to characterize environmentally relevant flows;
•explain the role of turbulence, stratification, and density differences for transport processes and ecosystem dynamics;
•independently perform simple scaling analyses and order-of-magnitude estimates for environmental flows;
•discuss interactions between fluid mechanics and biological or ecological processes;
•critically reflect on current climate-change-related challenges from a fluid-mechanical perspective;
•evaluate and interpret simplified case studies and datasets from environmental and geophysical flows.
The course particularly strengthens analytical skills, physical process understanding, and the ability to structure and assess complex environmental processes using fundamental fluid-mechanical concepts.
You can find more details like the schedule or information about exams on the course-page in BOKUonline.