Syllabus for Statistical Methods in Hydrology

Learning outcomes

After the completion of the course, the student should be able to

• identify statistical tools that can be used to handle large amounts of data
• use statistical tools for modelling and analysis within the environmental sciences
• master the most common statistical techniques used in hydrology
• carry out a time-series analysis
• compute design floods and hydrological extremes
• use simple statistic models in hydrology

Content

Statistical analysis: Moments: measures of central tendency, dispersion and symmetry. Expectation and estimation. Frequency analysis and design floods. Discrete and continuous probability distributions, especially normal and extreme-value distributions. Confidence intervals and hypothesis testing. Correlation, simple and multiple regression. Variance analysis. Parameter-value estimation. Time-series analysis and simple stochastic models. Error theory.

Instruction

Lectures, computer exercises, project work and project report.

Assessment

Examination is held at the end of the course. Grading on the scale 3, 4 or 5 is given provided all exercises and laboratory reports are completed and approved. Grade is based on written examination (4 ECTS-credits) and project work (1 ECTS-credit).