Available Thesis Subjects at SEG:

NEW:
·   Plant response to water and salinity: Agriculture is increasingly faced with water shortage and higher water salinity. Viable modeling concepts may help to use available water with certain quality in the most beneficial way. The thesis activities include the analysis of performed experiments, investigation of reliable concepts, the use of analytical and numerical models and applications to real world situations.

·   Het thermische gedrag van de bodem, en het thermisch modelleren van stroomvoerende systemen ìn de bodem i.s.m. KEMA. Om binnen een KEMA ontwikkelproject te komen tot een betrouwbare thermische modellering van kabelbedden.

·   Satellite radar remote sensing and soil physics to improve the water balance of clay areas. Clay soils swell upon wetting and shrink upon drying. Using this specific property, the amount of water stored in the soil can be estimated from surface level elevation changes. Measuring and predicting the soil shrinkage potential thus can give considerable insight in the soil water storage change.

·   Interception of rainfall forms an important component of evapotranspiration at short and tall vegetations. Especially in forest areas the interception amount is substantial, up to 30% of the evapotranspiration amount. In this MSc thesis research we will investigate a number of interception modeling concepts which differ in complexity.

·   How well can existing models predict soil temperature profiles? One of the terms of the energy balance is the soil heat flux,  with the soil acting as a heat storage. Understanding this flux allows to correct interpret eddy correlation measurements, contributes to modeling dew, to modeling evapotranspiration for time periods shorter than one day and to modeling soil temperatures.

 ·   What is the value of high frequency phosphate concentration measurements in streams? Find out what the answers are you can provide!

·   How does lowland hydrology work? We are interested in transitions from flat to sloped groundwater dominated catchments, the role of the unsaturated zone and the role of local topography on discharge and travel times.

·   Miniature Sensors. Building and testing different prototypes for salinity sensors for lab practicals. Optimizing and studying their behaviour. 

·   Multidimensional transport modeling. In this project we want to investigate the effect of the number of simulated dimensions on the leaching behavior of the soil. We use existing models and an extended data set from a Swiss experiment.

·   Response of the phreatic level and then specifically in sandy soils. These seem to react fast to rainfall in some cases, whereas the drop afterwards is much slower. 1dimensional models solving Richard's equation have trouble in catching this. How could we solve this problem?

·   Root water uptake. Proper simulation of root water uptake is relevant for many ecohydrological and environmental studies. Simple assumptions are often used, but we can do better!

·   Pilot Points to calibrate groundwater models. Our way of calibrating groundwater models is just one of the possibilities. Would an alternative to zonation improve the models?

·   Groundwater model calibration again: how about using neural networks?

·   Quantifying performance of (groundwater) models: Quantifying the uncertainty of the calculated head distribution or the calculated groundwater flow in the model.

·   Advanced model calibration: How good are model calibration techniques? Can you do any better?

·   Monitoring of freshwater lens dynamics in areas with upward seeping saline groundwater, Zeeland. Polder areas suffer more and more from saline groundwater flowing towards the surface. What does that mean for the future use of such areas, in The Netherlands, Worldwide…

·   Modeling spatial competition by natural vegetation for water. Due to changing situations, new vegetation develops. On which hydrological factors does their further development depend?

·   Effects of natural vegetation on the hydrologic balance and vice versa: quantification of effects. Climate models are significantly influenced by water fluxes as caused by vegetation, but how are these taken into account, and how appropriate is that?

·   Nature reserve modeling: changes are being carried out in many Dutch nature reserves. What are the consequences? What should be looked at in detail? Choose the area that interests you most!

·   Determination of salt sensitivity in polymer tensiometers: Understanding and improving this new type of tensiometers, developed here.

·   Effects of heterogeneity of soil hydraulic properties on precipitation lens dynamics in fen meadow nature reserves Work in  three wetland nature reserves on heterogeneity and quantify the sensitivity of precipitation lens dynamics.

·   The effect of irrigation on the water balance and energy balance: Improving the water balance in regional climate models

Great thesis subjects:

If you have something in mind, please look at our staff’s pages to see whether you could fit it within their research topics. Please contact one of us! We may well be able to organize an interesting thesis for you. A few ideas:

·   The hydrological history of the Hupsel catchment

·   Dynamics in groundwater and surface water quality (DYNAQUAL)

·   The effects of confined versus unconfined groundwater head calculations. Where in the Netherlands does this lead to a significant under or overestimation of GLG and GHG

·   The robustness of groundwater traveltime distributions