Contact

tel.: 2310-998707
Email: dimkarp@agro.auth.gr
http://hydrolab.agro.auth.gr/en
Univ. box number: 263

Members

Karpouzos Dimitris, Professor, Head of Laboratory
Georgiou Pantazis, Professor
Panagopoulos Ioannis , Assistant Professor
Ch. Georgoussis, E.DI.P.
S. Kavalieratou, E.DI.P.
D. kalampidis, E.DI.P.

Laboratory objectives

The Laboratory of General and Agricultural Hydraulics and Land Reclamation offers courses and research opportunities on the subjects of general and agricultural hydraulics, water use in agriculture, water quality, irrigation, drainage, water resources management, land reclamation project studies and their environmental impact, mathematical description and model development of water quality and pollution of streams, lakes, surface and groundwater and mathematical modeling of the of water flow and mass transport in the saturated and the unsaturated zone.

Short history

The Laboratory of General and Agricultural Hydraulics and Land Reclamation was founded in 1937 belonging to the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry. The laboratory developed many activities in the areas of general and agricultural hydraulics, use of water in agriculture, water quality and pollution, environmental protection, and to the development and preservation of water resources. In 1973 the laboratory leaded in the organization of postgraduate studies in Agricultural Hydraulics and Land Reclamation in the School of Agriculture.

Teaching activities

The laboratory offers courses in the areas of general and agricultural hydraulics, irrigation, drainage, land reclamation, river hydraulics, hydrology of surface and ground water, water quality, pollution of water and soil, water resources and wetlands management and protection, natural wastewater treatment systems and mathematical modeling on a graduate and post graduate level. The laboratory also offers courses in applied mathematics and informatics for agriculture. A number of graduate students work on Ph.D. degree programs. One hindered and thirteen (115) master thesis and twenty five (25) doctoral thesis have been conducted in the laboratory. The laboratory is well equipped for teaching and research activities and is located in the building of the School of Agriculture and in the University farm.

Research areas

The Laboratory of General and Agricultural Hydraulics and Land Reclamation has conducted extensive research in the following areas:

Irrigation and Drainage

• Simulation models of crop evapotranspiration and irrigation scheduling.
• Water-crop-soil relationships
• Crop yield response to water
• Design and operation of farm irrigation systems and irrigation network systems
• Software development for laying out and designing (CAD) drainage systems.
• The use of informatics for irrigation scheduling and water management of cultivated soils.
• Irrigation and drainage methods
• Basic and applied research on the development of crop coefficients under the prevailing conditions in Greece
• Environmental impact of irrigation and drainage projects.
• Use of treated wastewater for irrigation.
• Water and nutrient management in cultivated soils with mathematical models.
• Water pricing in irrigation.
• Computer applications for study and design of drainage systems.
• Drainage of heavy soils.
• Drainage to control soil salinity

 

Ground Water Hydraulics

• Mathematical modeling of water flow and pollution of ground water (in confined, unconfined, coastal, karstic etc. aquifers) by finite element and finite difference methods.
• Development of a mathematical model for the ground water management
• Mathematical modeling of mass transport in surface water and aquifers.
• Seawater intrusion in coastal aquifers.

 

Hydrology and Water Resources Management

• Automatic Telemetric Weather stations.
• Water balance of watersheds by using rainfall-runoff models.
• Surface water management.
• Intensity – duration – frequency curves.
• Reservoir sizing with deterministic and stochastic methods. Studies of reservoir operation.
• Development projects of surface water resources (reservoirs, multiple purpose dams etc).
• Geographic Information Systems (G.I.S.) in surface water hydrology.
• Stochastic and deterministic hydrological models.
• Neural networks for water quantity and quality forecasts.
• Risk evaluation of floods, propagation and flood protection.
• Decision support systems for water resources management.
• Impacts of climate change on water resources.
• Hydrometeorology.
• Drought management and drought risk analysis.

 

Open Channel Hydraulics and Fluid Mechanics

• Mathematical models for free surface flow, for dispersion of pollutants in rivers (Axios river, Strymon river) and for unsteady flow in open channel ending at a free overfall.
• Flood routing and antiflood protection [Axios river, Pinios river, Strymon river, Meg. Panagia (Chalkidiki), Simandra-Portaria stream (Chalkidiki), Olympias (Chalkidiki)].
• Flow measurements (current meters, weirs, free overfalls) (plain of Pieria, Almopia catchment).
• Mathematical analysis on erosion beds.
• Flow over a weir, flows with separation and reattachments, impinging flows, energy losses.
• Simulation of flow over a bluff body.

 

Environmental Hydraulics – Limnology and Wetlands

• Soil water, salts, nitrogen and pesticide dynamics in fields cultivated with cotton, sugar beet, sunflower, rice and maize.
• Evaluation of vulnerabilities of groundwater pollution with nitrates and pesticides.
• Preferential flow.
• Environmental impact assessment studies for the pre-approval and for approval sitting of water resources management and irrigation projects.
• Temperature distribution and quality parameters in lakes.
• Eutrophication.
• Lake water balance and management. Case study (Vegoritis lake, Koronia lake, Volvi lake, Kerkini lake, Vistonis lake, and former Karla lake).
• Wetland management (former lake Karla, Kerkini, Vistonida).
• Impacts of irrigation and drainage networks on natural wetlands (delta of Axios).

 

Wastewater Reuse and Management

• Reuse of treated municipal wastewater for irrigation.
• Natural systems of wastewater treatment.
• Infiltration basins and artificial wetland systems.

 

Mathematical models of water resources systems

• Mathematical models of water flow, mass transport and air in surface water, unsaturated zone and groundwater aquifers
• Mathematical models of water systems pollution and management
• Data management and prediction using stochastic model and algorithms of neural networks

 

Members of the laboratory staff have developed mathematical models on water flow and pollution of ground water employing finite element and finite difference methods. These models refer to different types of aquifers (confined and unconfined, coastal and karst). A model was developed to evaluate the optimum use of ground water in the plain of Katerini (Pieria) and another model, was used for the optimum management and quality protection of ground water aquifers in the Plain of Axios River. Mathematical models for water flow simulation and water quality in rivers have also been developed and applied in Axios and Strimon rivers. Simulating flow over a bluff body and experimental and mathematical analysis on bed erosion downstream of a waterfall were studied. Simulation models have been developed to estimate evapotranspiration and crop water requirements, to the selection of the optimum irrigation method and to the study and design of irrigation networks. Irrigation water saving studying irrigation scheduling and application methods. A model, based on a CAD Program, was developed for the design of drainage systems. Modern methods of collecting, transmitting and storing meteorological data are being used for the study of the hydrologic balance in basins of Northern Greece. Application and research is conducted on the reuse of treated municipal wastewater for irrigation. Natural systems of wastewater treatment and methods related to infiltration basins and artificial wetland systems are studied. Methods for the management of the quantity and the quality of water of hydrologic catchments and lakes, for the protection of water resources and their aqueous environment, with applications to Vegoritis and Koronia lakes have been developed. Water resources management of the Prefecture of Halkidiki with purpose to constructing works for water storage, transport and distribution and the wastewater treatment with natural plant systems for small communities. Optimal reservoir operation for irrigation purposes. Studies of water and nitrogen fate in fields with cotton, corn, sunflower, sugarbeet and rice. The research projects are mainly carried on by the Laboratory staff and graduate students. More than 30 of them authored MSc and doctoral theses on subjects associated to the research projects that were carried on in the Laboratory.