Teacher
|
PISCOPO Vincenzo
(syllabus)
I Thematic Unit: The Soil Soil and pedology. Physical characteristics: texture, structure, specific weight, plasticity, porosity, color. Soil hydrology: water content, wilting point, field capacity, available water capacity, tensiometric curves, groundwater movements, hydraulic conductivity. Main chemical characteristics: mineral fraction, primary minerals, secondary minerals; organic fraction, humus, humification index; cationic exchange capacity, pH and saturation in bases, redox potential. Soil profile and horizons. Soil formation. Pedogenesis and soil forming factors: climate, parent material, topography, organisms, time. USDA Soil Classification: topsoil and subsoil horizons, Entisols, Inceptisols, Aridosols, Mollisol, Alfisols, Ultisols, Oxisols, Spodosols, Vertisols, Histosols, Andisols.
II Thematic Unit: Erosive processes and soil conservation Geomorphology: morphogenetic processes, climatic and non-climatic geomorphology morphoclimatic equilibrium. Weathering. Solifluction and creep. Water erosion: sheet erosion, rill erosion, gully erosion. Soil loss and measurement methods. River processes: erosion, transport and deposition; river landforms. Coastal processes and landforms. Glacier and glacial morphology. Arid geomorphology. Landslides: Varnes classification, morphology, causes, hazard and risk, risk mitigation. Structural geomorphology. Karst geomorphology. Geomorphological maps.
III Thematic Unit: Surface waters and groundwater The hydrological cycle. The hydrological balance: precipitation, evaporation, evapotranspiration, runoff, infiltration. Drainage basin, drainage pattern, characteristic elements, watershed time of concentration. River flow: measurement methods, precipitation-outflow relationships. River hydrographs: flow components, streamflow separation. River floods: nature and characteristics of floods, flood routing, flood risk mitigation. Main hydrogeological properties of rocks. Darcy's Law. Types of aquifers. Potentiometric contour lines maps. Flow in confined and unconfined aquifers. Groundwater-surface water relationships. Freshwater-salt water relationship. Springs. Wells.
(reference books)
Bell F.G. (1998) Environmental geology: principles and methods. Wiley-Blackwell. Fetter C.W. (2000) Applied hydrogeology. Merill Pub. Company. Fitzpatrick E.A. (1974) An introduction to soil science. Oliver & Boyd.
|