Lo scopo della commissione è di coordinare e rappresentare gli interessi dell’idrologia in Svizzera nelle commissioni e organizzazioni rilevanti a livello nazionale e internazionale.di più

Immagine: thomasfuer, photocase.dedi più

Università di Losanna

At the University of Lausanne, hydrology is taught in the following programmes: Geosciences and Environment (Bachelor), Environmental Science (Master) and Geography (Master). In some cases it is also possible to attend courses at the Universities of Neuchâtel and Geneva and at the EPF Lausanne.


Study content

The Bachelor's first year is common to all students. From the second year onwards, students choose one of the three study paths: Environmental Studies, Geographical Studies and Geological Studies.

Focus in the field of hydrology

The research mainly refers to the study of water uses and governance issues. The work focuses on various geographical areas and various fields of water management. Social sciences approaches are mobilized as well as modeling methods. The whole research is guided by questions on the effects of climatic and anthropogenic changes on water resources future availability and dynamic in various contexts.

Teaching Language

  • French

Courses in the field of hydrology specifically offered in this study programme

  • Hydrology
  • River hydraulics, processes and morphology
  • Water chemistry
  • Hydrogeology
  • Climate, weathering, and elemental cycles
  • Water Management
  • Water Management in mediterranean environments

Study content

In the first year, students take compulsory courses from two core modules and their chosen orientation module «Aquatic Science» or «Natural Hazards and Risk». In the second year, students complete free-choice courses along with their Master’s thesis.

The orientation «Aquatic Science» offers a multidisciplinary training in issues relating to freshwater. It has been created and developed in terms of global-scale issues, but integrating a focus on the continuum of freshwater processes typical of the Swiss landscape where the mountains play a critical role as the «water towers» of Europe.

The training integrates explicitly the hydrological linkages between glaciers and high mountain environments, soils and the subsurface, and the rivers and lakes of the piedmont zone. Such a perspective, unique in the Swiss University landscape, allows treatment of issues relating to surface and subsurface water at the scale of river basins, these being the entities that unite environmental management with the basic understanding of the impacts of humans on the quantity and quality of water.

Focus in the field of hydrology

The research mainly refers to the study of water uses and governance issues. The work focuses on various geographical areas and various fields of water management. Social sciences approaches are mobilized as well as modeling methods. The whole research is guided by questions on the effects of climatic and anthropogenic changes on water resources future availability and dynamic in various contexts.

Teaching language

  • English (compulsory courses)
  • French (some optional courses)

Courses in the field of hydrology specifically offered in this study programme

Orientation «Aquatic Science»:

  • Fluid flow and transport in the subsurface
  • Environmental biogeochemistry: molecular-scale perspectives on water-microbe-mineral interactions
  • Environmental chemistry and toxicology
  • Aquatic ecosystems: glaciers, rivers, and lakes
  • Tracing biogeochemical processes and fluxes using isotope analysis
  • Field and laboratory methods
    • The UNIL campus as a microcosm
    • Alpine catchments

Orientation «Natural Hazards and Risk»:

  • Flood risk modeling

Besides those courses it is also possible to take hydrological courses from other Universities like the EPFL, University of Neuchâtel and University of Geneva.

Universite de Lausanne
Faculté des géosciences et de l'environnement
Géopolis
1015 Lausanne


Study content

This programme offers four orientations:

  • Sustainable Urban and Spatial Planning: It is based on a study of the environmental challenges of sustainable urban development and analysis of urban projects viewed from the perspective of ecological town planning.
  • Geomorphology and Management of Mountain Regions: There is a strong grounding in Geomorphology and a focus on the study of environmental dynamics in high mountain regions, concentrates in particular on the reaction of permafrost to climatic changes and the evolution of alpine landscapes due to the combined effects of environmental and socioeconomic changes.
  • Development and Environment: It is orientated towards the study of economic, social, political and ecological transformation in Southern countries.
  • Spatial Analysis and Complex Systems: It concentrates on the development for challenging public and private projects of studies and smart communicative displays based on spatial modelling, the study of networks and the organisation and processing of Big Data.

Focus in the field of hydrology

The focus is on mountain hydrology.

Teaching language

  • French
  • English (some courses)

Courses in the field of hydrology specifically offered in this study programme

  • Mountain streams : ecological processes and management
  • Rivières de montagne : gestion des sédiments
  • Flood Risk Modelling
  • Environnement périglaciaire alpin
  • Mountain Ecosystems : Patterns and Processes

Université de Lausanne
Faculté des géosciences et de l'environnement
Géopolis
1015 Lausanne