I always taught my student that the density of saltwater always hover around 10.1 kN/m. If the polar ice caps melt and the density of saltwater lowers by just a fraction what will happen? I just can't exactly say what will happen but definitely its not good. One thing I know is that all the ocean current movements we see today will be altered. How will it change I cant say too.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Hydrologic Profiling
Hydrologic profiling is very important because you are taking into account the possible sources of water in a certain place and how the water cycle occurs in that place. It should be noted that the "water cycle" diagram taught to us by our science (and even hydrology) teachers is not exactly applicable from one place to another. Many factors influence this such as terrain, type of soil and amount of vegetation cover as well as land use. In short the water cycle is more complicated than what our teachers have taught us.
systems thinking is very effective in showing the relationship of the processes occuring in the water cycle to other parameters such as soil type, vegetation cover and land use. It will clearly show how process interacts with one another and how well it will do so over TIME. The advantage of applying systems thinking in hydrologic profiling is that by determining how each elements interacts with one another we can know how will it behave when we apply changing conditions over time. This would enable to know the consequence of our actions even though we haven't done it yet and provide remedial measures that will lead to our ultimate goal as engineers - to promote sustainable development. The disadvantage however is academic. the "system" relationship is difficult to set up and needs calibration to accept its validity. Even though the relationships are backed by highly complex numerical solutions it would take some trials to conclusively say that the assumptions are true. But once it was set up it is a very Powerful tool for decision support systems
systems thinking is very effective in showing the relationship of the processes occuring in the water cycle to other parameters such as soil type, vegetation cover and land use. It will clearly show how process interacts with one another and how well it will do so over TIME. The advantage of applying systems thinking in hydrologic profiling is that by determining how each elements interacts with one another we can know how will it behave when we apply changing conditions over time. This would enable to know the consequence of our actions even though we haven't done it yet and provide remedial measures that will lead to our ultimate goal as engineers - to promote sustainable development. The disadvantage however is academic. the "system" relationship is difficult to set up and needs calibration to accept its validity. Even though the relationships are backed by highly complex numerical solutions it would take some trials to conclusively say that the assumptions are true. But once it was set up it is a very Powerful tool for decision support systems
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