JORD210 Dynamic Modelling in the Soil-Plant-Atmosphere System

Environmental simulation modeling is used world-wide to study e.g. climate change effects, cropping and land-use planning scenarios or the transport of nutrients and pollutants in soil and the landscape. Such studies routinely assist practitioners and decision makers and help achieve several UN Sustainable Development Goals. During this course students will learn about key concepts underlying process-based simulation modeling in the soil-plant-atmosphere system and will learn to use the FAO Aquacrop simulation model. We will focus on the importance and knowhow of model parameterization, model calibration and validation, parameter sensitivity analysis and the importance of sources of uncertainty. The students will use case study exercises and develop model scenarios (e.g. climate change, irrigation scheduling, soil tillage effects, etc.) and learn to interpret model results and their inherent uncertainties. In the second half of the course, a greater pool of numerical simulation models will be introduced through guest lectures, in order to help understand how different model types include different additional components and address various other types of processes at different spatial and temporal scales (e.g. biogeochemical processes, soil erosion events, catchment scale water (re-)distribution, global-scale land-surface interactions, etc.). The course is designed to equip environmental science students with stronger computational background and strengthen the environmental science background of students in science and technology studies.