Motivation Letter [PDF]

Zitiervorschau

Motivation letter I wish to apply for PhD positions “Hydrogeological assessment of dynamic groundwater flow in floodplains" at The University of Tübingen, Department of Geosciences, Hydrogeology, which was recently advertised on the webpage of the institute. My name is Benjamin Olukunle and I have studied Civil Engineering (B.Eng.) in Nigeria and a Masters in Hydrogeology and Environmental Geosciences (M.Sc.) at the Georg-August University of Gottingen, Germany. In April 2017, I will have completed my second master’s programme in Water Engineering (M.Eng.) at the University Of Applied Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany. During my undergraduate studies and masters programmes, I became more interested in Hydrological modeling and Ecohydrology because understanding the interaction between surface and subsurface waters through hyporheic exchange and base flow is critical to maintaining ecological health in streams. During warm periods, groundwater−surface water interactions have two primary effects on stream temperature:  (1) cool groundwater discharging as base flow lowers stream temperature and (2) hyporheic exchange buffers diurnal stream temperature variations. Therefore, understanding the processes controlling the concentration and fluxes of the transport process is critical to quantifying and mapping watersheds vulnerable to stresses and predicting the effects of these stresses on watershed scale. There is also a need to better understand how groundwater discharge to streams accumulates throughout a watershed’s drainage network as base flow, which supports river flow during dry periods, maintains aquatic ecosystems, and is critical to humans for water supply and agriculture. My research interests lie in the fields of catchment hydrology, analysis and evaluation of hydrological systems under uncertainty, model identification and evaluation, prediction in ungauged catchments and prediction under environmental change (i.e. climate and land use change). Specifically, my current visions fall under the theme “diagnostic model evaluation in a non-stationary context” and focus on the identification of robust numerical solutions to better characterize the possible evolutions of surface hydrology. In this content, I intend to better quantify the model uncertainties and improve the capacity of hydrological models to predict extreme flood events and their future change. My research goal strives for a better understanding of the transport of water and chemicals between surfacewater and groundwater. The influences of this interaction on biological processes are essential to improve management of surface and

groundwater resources and to protect the functionality of the associated ecosystems. Historically, surfacewater and groundwater have been considered separately and essentially unconnected components of the hydrological processes water resources managers and scientific investigators. However, it has been recognized that hydrological exchange is critical for the sustainability of conjunctive use of groundwater and surface water, for the maintenance of water quality, and for the conservation of biodiversity and the ecological functions of the watersheds. For this research topic, I intend to study and estimate connectivity between groundwater and surface water, create a coupling model of groundwater-surface water over nested and regional scales which are not readily accessible to observations; study the dynamics of groundwater chemistry by intensive monitoring and the use of natural and artificial tracers to develop a modeling framework, advance uncertainty quantification and calibrate the model using state variables and predict future hydrogeological assessment. Due to previous field experience, education and training, in addition to my enthusiasm for the research topic, I am certain that I will be able make a meaningful contribution to this research effort if given the opportunity. Yours sincerely Olukunle Benjamin Ekeade (M.sc)